Evening star., 1941-11-15

What you might call sporty course.
We beat the nightfall into the
valley but had three more hours of
up-and-down going before we tum-
bled out at HsiakWan pronounced
Shah-gWanD with an 1l-hour day
behind us and nothing but a garage
to sleep in. When they get in late.
Burma road drivers sometimes cam
not find any hole-in-the-wall eat
ing place open and have to sleep
in their cars Maybe they have
some excuse for their toughnesS-
if only they wouldn't keep taking
the curves at 80 in the middle Of
the road or worse.
Worst Trials Left Behind.
Anyhow, Saturday was the fourth
day, and the worst river valleys,
deScents and climbs were behind
us, even though the highest eleva-
ton on the Burma road (slightly
over 5000 feeD was still ahead.
Once the highway burst out above
magnificent, huge valley, even
floored, with its yellow fields of rice
stubble cut into curving. green
hedged patterns, long and uneven
and rhythmic When We hit the
high spot of the road an awful lot
OF China lay tossed about in sue
cessive humps of clad noun
tains all the way to the horizon,
perhaps 60 miles away, and tight
little valley squinted a golden eve
up at us from 1000 feet below.
Really something to look at, all
that-if the curves would let you
Tor more than a minute at time.
This time we only had a 1000
foot descent to reach the rolling,
temperamental Yunnan Plateau-a
big chunk of it, any Way-and the
road was level most of the time
now, even if it meandered a lot
The station wagon just ahead of
us was negotiating regulation me-
ander-qulte sharp-When the law
OF averages on the Burma road in
tervened. 1t intervened most sud-
denly in the shape of truck COM
ing fast around the curve on our
side of the road. The No. Va
was tight against an embankment
no place to 60. 1t was all over
very fast. I saw coolie going
through the air, high up and arch
ing fast. Two others cut a shorter
arch.
The poor coolie had deep Pinch
cash on the back of his head, but
Red Cross Man Rowlands per-
formed his first aid job in China
like a veteran. The truck driver
wasn't hurt. Unfortunately it
seems they seldom are along the
Burma road-not enough to learn
ordinary road rules, anyway. The
No. l station wagon had its radiator
stove in, its steering gear bent. It's
left mudguard demolished. 1t could
have been much worse. Just enough
to learn about the law of averages
on the Burma road. And a long,
hadr tow into Chu-Hsiung. The
Chinese driver wanted to tow at 80
miles an hour or more, so Rowlands
took on that job, too. Quakers are
thorough, dependable people.
Speed Past Injured Man.
Our car went on ahead. Must
get hotel tonight; unwashed for
two days is bad enough. So 1 had
the extra Chinese driver alongside
me in front, and the two of them
Kept up an animated conversation
with their heads and hands in
cluded. Suddenly we came upon a
man struggling to sit up in the
middle OF the road. His head was
covered with blood and seemed bad
ly bashed-I caught that much In
one hash as our car sWerved bv
Not pleasant. It did something to
the pit of your stomach-and that
got worse. I tried to get our driver
to stop, but instead he pushed on
the accelerator His companior
made a lot of motions, indicating
II we halted we'd be blamed for
running down the man. There was
nothing you could do. People don't
risk meddling in other peoples af-
fairs In this part of the world. Soon
the two drivers were chatting and
Joking again. They had forgotten