LETTER FROM Mr B.T.B.BOOTHBY, ENGINEER-IN-CHIEF, CANTON-KOWLOON RAILWAY, to SIR CHARLES ADDIS, dated
CANTON, November 21, 1923.
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I think that you may be interested to hear my impressions of this unhappy region now that I have had time to look round. I saw Sun Yat Sen soon after my arrival and said how disappointed I was not to find the peaceful and prosperous province which he had promised, after he had been in power so long. He said that the North would not let him alone, but that, as far as re-opening of the Railway to public traffic was concerned, he expected that there would be a decisive battle very shortly which would definitely establish supremacy one way or the other. What did happen was that Sun's troops beat a sudden panic retreat to Canton from Sheklung on the 13th and 14th and are now pushing back again along the Railway to Sheklung and have reached Shektan, about 6 miles away.
It
seems that the Kwangsi troops of Lan Chen Wan and Liu Yak Shan were fired at from the sides of the line by robbers or village sympathisers with Chen Chiung Ming, and, fearing that they were being attacked by Chen's army and would be cut off from Canton they bolted along the Railway taking what trains they could get hold of and causing several collisions and derailments. Sun was up the line at the time and got out of the Inspection Coach to try and stop the rout, but failed to do so. His train was bumped into by the retreating trains from Sheklung and he came back on an engine. The Yunnanese troops at Sheklung (who are the only fighters in Sun's Army at present) didn't care about being left behind and followed to Canton. In the meantime,
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