1937-12-11 — Page 22

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A TRAGEDY OF LOCH EARN

ST FILLANS is famous for the

Saint and the goodly deeds. Jie diet in and around the village, but this that was done on the isle of Loch Earn was fully eight centuries after his life, when it seemed though lawless deeds were the ac- cepted custom or the day.

the

The M'Nabs, who lived at Kinne!! House on Loch Toy, were apparently rulers of the land stretching around them, and their main enemy was the Chief of the Neishes, who lived on the isle on Loch Earn at St Fillans,

are un-

The why and

and wherefore

known. It is such a tiny island, with many stones from the ruins on it, that one can only conclude it has sunk atendily during the Just ye hundred years since

were in occupation.

the. Nelahes

It is told that at the beginning of the sixteenth century there was terrible battle between the M'Nabs and the clan of Nelsh at Glenboltn- chan, which alvides the two hills rising due riorth of

Lochearnfoot,

and it was bellaved that the latter A large stone clan was wiped out. marks the spot where the Chief was slain. But the Neishes appeared to come to life again, for they are heard of in the time of James V. moking ruid on some servants of the M'Nabs.

Wrath of the M'Nab

Christmas time was drawing near, and it had been decided at Kinnoul to send for special food and drink which took the servants down by St Fillans. News of this reached the Neishes, and on the return journey the servants were set upon and des- poiled of all their purchases, includ- ing some special wines.

The wrath of the M'Nah was great when the servants returned beaten me after and bereft. For some hearing their news he walked in his courtyard and come in with an un- Rocial humour," contemplating the doing of some desperate deed." He recited to his sons-twelve of them -the wrongs done to his servants by the hated Neishes, and ended up drumatically by saying. The night is the night, if lads were but lads."

M'Nab's sons thereupon started up, and buckled on their pistols, dirks, and claymores. Receiving their father's instructions the way too old for the venture) they went forth to the creek at Lóch Tay,

The twelve shouldered the boat, marching off down the narrow pass of Glentarkim, then following a mountain stream to the edge of Locki Earn. Their boat was launched again, and with sinewy arms they shot forth, plying the oars silently until they came to cove on the nortit-cast end of the island, where they disembarked."

Solitary Survivor

The twelve M'Nubs crept up to the house, and finding a hole in the wall, peered through,

they und looked into the very room where the Neish was sitting before a Are.

"It did not take Tong for them”lə And the entrance, and the eldest son of the M'Nabs rapped at the door. Old Neish had heard the steps, and quickly guessing whose they were, felt that with such the worst would happen.

that

"Who knocks at the door," he shouted. There came the answer. "Who would you ilken worat were there?" Then came a voice of des- pair

endeavoured to Aneer. "Smooth John M'Nab," Wat the

There Bnswer.

a snor of Won derision from the other side. "Is ne has hitherto been smooth," satd a voice, “you'll find him rough for this one night," und the door Was smashed open.

A horrible strugite took plurv, until finally Nelsh's heat WV เฟ severed from the body and made ready for fuking back to Kinnell. Meantime the rest of the brothers went into the dining hall of the old they gloomy mansion, and there "dealt with all they found," and all they found were drunk,

Every person they found in the they killed. Triumphantly, Jiouse with old Nelsh's, head packed safely for their father, they entered their boat again.

But they had not completed their' work. A small boy, a grandson of

Nelsh, had hidden himself through- out the terrible slaughter, and how

N the heart of China-first- in the middle provinces south of the great Yangtse, thon in the far North-West there has been for ton years a land of Lost Horizon.

It was the territory of the Chinese - Soviet Republic: founded in 1927, voluntarily dissolved in the summer of this year.

And in all those ten years, until Edgar SnowDaily Herald "correspondent-walked out with a muleteer from Yenan In Shens, through No-Man's Land into the hills where the Red outposts challenged him. no outsider had visited the Un- known State.

You could hear by runtour and report of enemies and of romantic sympathisers any- thing you wished to belleve. But the facts lay behind an Impene- trablo vell.

Even the existence of the Soviet State was questioned, Nanking Government propa- yanda denied it. According to the Chinese Press, and to most foreigners in China, there was neither Soviet nor Slate, only some gangs of "bandits" and "brigands" whom Chiang Kai- shek's armies "destroyed " "liquidated "every few months. When they were not being destroyed they were murdering and looting and burning: ruffians and desperadoes of the vilest kind.

ΟΙ

On the other hand, there were Moscow legends of a great, organised Communist State of 80,000,000 inhabitants, with n

Red powerful

Army which would at any moment advance to the conquest of all China.

Somewhere between lay the truth. But just where no one ⚫ knew until Snow went in to see

and report. Just in time. For he came back in October of last year-only a few months before the strange end of this strange State.

So "Red Star Over China" (published by Gollancz at 18.) is and will remain an histori- cal document of the first order. It is also as exciting and en- thralling a tale of exploration as anyone can want, to read.

"By seven o'clock next morn- ing I had really left the last Kuomintang machine-guns be- hind, and was walking through the thin strip of territory that divided Red from White....

"There was no road at all, but only the bed of the stream that rushed swiftly between high walls of rock....

**Tao-la! the muleteer, shouted suddenly, as the rock walls at last gave way and opened out into a narrow val- ley, green with young wheat.

We have-arrived.

"I saw in the side of a hill a locss village, where blue smoke curled from the tall, clay chim- neys that stood up like long fingers against the face of the CAE.

"A young farmer wearing a urban of white towelling on his head and a revolver strapped to his waist came out and looked at me in astonishment..

That was the beginning, II you want to know what hap- pened then, buy, beg or borrow Red Stur." Because here I

must say something of the Soviet Republic itself.

It began in 1927 with the

THE

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.

DECEMBER SATURDAY,

11,

1937.

The

Lost Country

where only

ONE WHITE MAN

HAS TROD

One of the Little Devila" of the Chinese Red Army, who arc

reated as mascots. Above are the frozen plains of Suiyuan.

great split in the then victorious Kuomintang, when Chlang Kal- shek and the Communists quar- relled, Chiang began a merciless White Terror against the Left, and all Nationalist China broke into a welter of warring fac- tions.

In those days Mao Tse-tung. son of a Hunan peasant, now 34 years old and & Communist lauder, organized a rising among the fiercely exploited, miser- ably poor peasantry of Kiangsi and Hunan.

It

He had a handful of "* rebel" troops, the Hanyang miners, the peasants themselves. seemed an insignificant move- ment. But it was rooted in the realities of Chinese pensant life. It grew swiftly. Other risings. under other leaders followed

land merged with it. By the end of 1027 large areas were under the control of Red Armies: and

By

W. N. Ewer

where the Red Armies were, the landlords were ousted, the land given to the peasants. A Boviet Government was proclaimed at Cha'lin.

Out of disorder and revolt Mao and Chu Teh and the other leaders gradually got order and organisation. The Soviet State (which was in fact a peasant state) got itself formed, with a population of some 9,000,000,

Chiang Kai-shek, now dic- tator in Nanking, took alarm, launched his armies on an "Extermination

Campaign."

They were well and truly beaten. He tried again, All through the years of the Japan-

еве

Was

Now

new beginning. came 0 fantastic, incredible thing..

The Red Armies broke through Chlang's encircling troops, and marched away to the West. Month after month they marched, on foot all the the way, fighting most of time. West and west until they were nearly at the fron- tier of Burma. Then North and North into Shensi, thousand miles!

Six

It Is onc of the most astounding facts in military history. They lost thousands on the way: but they re- eruited thousands more: everywhere the peasantry greeted them as friends and liberators.

for

And at the end, in Shensi, well out of Chiang's striking range, they rebuilt their Soviet State. What that State is like, let Snow tell you. It is an im- portant as well as a fascinating story. For though the Soviet Republic is now dissolved in name, the system remains in fact and it is the model on which (because it is a peasant land) all China will one day be rebuilt.

The Soviet Republic has been dissolved: the Red Armies have become divisions of the national army, because of the impera- tive need of unity in face of

Japan. conquest of Manchuria, Chiang devoted himself not to resisting invasion, but to trying

These Chinese Com- munists are passionately Chinese, Again and again,

to destroy the Soviet Republic.they offered peace to Nanking,

Five campaigns he launched. He had tanks and seroplanes and heavy artillery, German advisers, British and Ameri- can money. The "Reds" had ittle but indomitable spirit No and brillant leadership. aid of any kind from outside --not even from Russia, which applauded but gave no support. At last the slow pressure told. The position became The Red Armies impossible.

The landlords came vanished.

the executioners, back with White Terror swept the land. And Nanking cried exultantly that the Soviet Republic (or the "bandits") had been ex- terminated.

But it was not the end. It

peace and union against the Invader.

juls

Always Chiang refused-until Chang kidnapping by

The Hsuch-ilang this summer. facts of that fantastic tale, too, Bnow tells for the first time. The upshot of it all was that peace was made, the "Soviet became D Government"

Government," "Special Агса and that, just in time, all China was at last united in resistance to Japanese aggression.

It is an eple story, superbly told. "Red Star" is going to be one of the classic books on China.

Why a Parachute Costs so much Money

A

GOOD parachute any faults. After it is packed it is tested again by being ixed to a dum- costs about £80. Ex- my and dropped from a 'plane. pensive, perhaps In a test for a new model u 400 he came out sane it is difficult to but think of the work that pound weight is attached to it and

the whole lot In dropped from imagine. But we hear that he did,

'plane diving about two seconds from and continued to live in the neigh goes into it...

the time the ripcord is pulled for a parachute to open out fully.

bourhood of St, Fillans. From him Nelihes of to- must descend the day.

L. M.

No

A BROKEN DOWN SYSTEM. Tals in a condition for dianasa) to which masy Mames are given but few zouliy understand. Et is simply weaknasiga bawak down sa li were,

the vital foren thul sustain the system. mazing what may be diseases ( At almost mumduriman), kte symptomus sưa much the same the more prominent being sleeplessness, SAARE of protestian oe, waariasja, depression of splete and west of energy for all the orĉtrary affaire of life. Now, what alone is essenitul in sil nah cases la inocensed viizklip-vigour, vill Krougth and songy to threw a these morbid

dealings, and an infans were the day this

by a DOUTE OF Maybe more Detaily THE NEW FRENCH REMEDY,

THERAPION No. 3

shan by any other known sombination. Bo surely It is taken in spoedaabe with be printed dications wat the shelteerd health ba tasiored THE EXPIRING LAMP OF LIFE LIGHTED UP AFRESH

and new asistangs imparted in place of what had Eately sesized worn-out, weed up and value Less. This preparation is suitabla lav mil Regi, pontstanesid sonditions, in either we

di

Es dimenit le Įmagine a disease or dieryngent whose main fostore is weskoene, that with not be apnadily and permanently overcome by this reesperative asennon, which is destined to bANT to oblivion everything that had proceded it Martin Price by

Chemia w pither 20%, rEERTH PRES

3

Each parachute needs sixty to seventy yards of finest pure A small pilot parachute Atted at silk. In the canopy alone the top of the large chute helps i! ninety-six separate sections: to open quickly and also draws it have to be accurately sewn to away from the airman so, that he

won't fall into it. gother.

One faulty stitels among the quar ter of a million stitches in a part- chute and the whole thing has to bei returned to the workshop, becaÜRE the examiner will not pass it

The size of the standard parachute is twenty-four feet diameter. It can be a lot more, but it can't be much smaller to be safe.

Besides the silk there's the har-

ness and 400 yards of card wanted.

The cord shroud lines are stretched to a tension of more than 600 pounds before they are sewn of an equal pull all over the parachute and, con- sequently, an oven drop.

Tested three Times

BEFORE the

parachute

The rate of fall varies between. sixteen and twenty-four feet second.

31

It is not considered safe to jump from less than 250 feet up, though muny successful Jumps have been made from a much lower height. It is pretty certain, though, that when you read of a parachute that failed to open, the "jumper started off too near to the ground.

They always Open

parachute THE American

handin the people who business for most of the air lines and air forces in the world claim that not of their parachutes has ever one talled to open.

The British branch of the firm pos- more think 10,000 recorted is packed into its 18in. x Se _x_din, container, it is tested twice for drops without a failure.

For the arrival will be like Best parachute jumpers are the ground. Itussions, for parachute jumping is leaping from a ten-foot wall. one of their favourite pastimes. They

queue up at the special parachute How to Land towers and jump from the top with absolute safety, for the parachute is already open.

GOOD jumper lands feet first, knees slightly bent. He lets himselt fall to the In the latest type of tower they ground and so lessens the chances of even start from the bottom and go being dragged along by the canopy.

His

the up. A powerful draught blows them

next job is to deflato

Into the alr. Then, when they canopy, either by rolling along to it reach the height when the force of and pulling on the different shroud gravity overcomes the upward effect lines or by running round to get the of the draught, they start to float chute between himself and the wind. slowly down.

Then and not till then-does he at- tempt to take off his harness.

Strangely enough,

necessary thing to have in a parachute is a hole. It has to be in the right place. of course at the top. The hole of vent at the top of every parachute provides an outlet for the air that collects in it, and so stops the swing- ing unt once used to distress all parachute Jumpers.

When you jump from a "plane you count ten before pulling the ripeord. Beginters are very troubled over that part. They're either consetenti- ous and count longer than they need, or else they're so scared they pulf the cord as quickly as they can. The experta can light cigarettes before they Louble to pull the Lord.

You don't jump from the 'plane; you just step off. And there's no Bole need to hold your breath. Time to worry is when you get near the i

Quicker

and a shine

as bright as lightning:

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