BX April 22, 1916
Aeroplane Flights are Among the Sights Witnessed in Chungking – Interesting Letters Received from Rev. Gordon Jones, Brantfordite who is a Missionary in Sze-Chuang Province, China – Yunnanese Are Hard Nut for Government Troops to Crack
Three interesting letters have been received by Major and Mrs. T. Harry Jones, from their son, Rev. Gordon Jones, who is at Chungking, in the province of Szechuan. The latest war news, habits of the foreigners in China, and aeroplane flights of the government aeroplanes acting against the rebels, are among the interesting topics discussed. The letter follows:
Sunday, February 20, 1916
Chungking
Dear Douglas and Mother,
What do you suppose I have just been doing? About the last thing you would expect in Szechuan, two thousand miles from the coast and nearly that far from the nearest railroad. Well, we have been watching an aeroplane fly. I suppose this is an everyday affair to you people, especially to Douglas, but this is the first time I have seen one, though I might have seen them in both Toronto and Montreal at times when I was there. We saw this chap fly yesterday at about this time and today he made two flights, one for fifteen minutes and the other for twelve. He is here with the northern soldiers who are coming up to invade Yunnan and Kweichow and incidentally to drive the Yunnanese out of Szechuan and keep Szechuan itself quiet. There seems to be two machines, though only one has made a flight yet. I have told you that our compound backs on the city wall just above the little river. The water of the river is low now and there is a big flat just across from us. It is here the aeroplanes are camped. So we get a splendid view of the landing and the whole flight as well. We also saw the start of the second flight today. A regular grandstand seat we have for this sort of thing. Already we have seen two fires and this aeroplane so it is a good site for seeing things.
The Yunnanese are not defeated decisively yet though the Government troops seem to be making progress. Suifu is still in their hands, and all shipping is still tied up. Nor does there seem to be such chance to get things moving again from all accounts, as the troops are still coming up river and using all the boats and trackers.
A Chinese Feast
On Friday night I was at the swellest Chinese feast I have ever been to. I couldn’t begin to tell you all the things they had to eat. Sharks’ fin are one delicacy the Chinese appreciate very much and they always have that for one dish at swell dinners like this. They have some delicious ways of cooking things, with all kinds of sauces. For instance roast duck was served in two succeeding courses. The first was just the skin but prepared in a special way. Then the meat proper. One dish which is considered an extra great dainty was preserved egg, fifteen years old. It had been put away in some kind of pickle and kept. Only extra swell feasts have this dish. I don’t like it and I don’t think most foreigners do but the Chinese think it a great treat. It was eggs prepared like this that Li Hung Chang took with him when he went to America. He knew that a half civilized country like the United States wouldn’t have these kind of eggs so took along a supply with him. The older the egg is the better it is supposed to be, I believe. I quite lost track of the number of courses at the feast – at least twenty I should say. The chaps who have the feast are prominent members of the Guild. Mr. Parker and George Sparling here, for which the new building is about ready. When there is danger of trouble and possibility of the town being in the hands of invading troops the wealthy men look around for means of protecting themselves and organizations like this Guild, with which the foreigners are connected, become quite popular. Hence the feast to which all the foreign members of the Guild were invited. These are all the men inside the city of our Mission and Mr. Irvin of the Scottish Bible Society. We were at another feast given by the President of the Red Cross Society who is also a member of the Guild, a week or so ago. Foreigners are very popular at a time like this. Dr. McCartney, who was formerly in charge of the M.E.M. Hospital here, is supposed to have let some of his Chinese friends store quite a lot of silver in the basement of his hospital during the second Revolution. Very few missionaries approve of this sort of thing as it is considered to be taking an unfair advantage of our extra-territorial position. You know of course that in China all foreigners have what are known as “Extra-territorial” rights. This means that though living in China we are not under her laws but for legal purposes are still within the nation to which we belong. We are supposed to be responsible to our consuls who have all manner of jurisdiction over us. Thus if a foreigner killed a Chinese he could not be brought before a Chinese court unless he wished to go. If the Chinese wished to prosecute him they would have to do it through the Consul of his nationality who was nearest. Of course the consuls living in the interior have only limited authority. Serious cases would have to be sent to Shanghai.
The War News There
The telegrams are interesting just now as the Russians have captured Erzurum in Asia Minor and seem to be threatening Czernowitz near the boundary of Rumania and Hungary. There is talk of Rumania coming in to the conflict at any time. It would certainly do me good to have something to cheer for, for once.
So Mr. Lavell is really going to the front. It will certainly be quite an experience for him and I am sure, too, he will be a fine man there if he chums up with the men. I fancy chaplains have got to choose one course or the other. Chum with the men or the officers but not with both. I hope this will be different in the Canadian army.
Blasé Over Aeroplanes
February 27, 1916
Chungking
Dear Folks,
We are getting quite blasé about aeroplanes and only one has flown at a time, but they have been making flights every day nearly and as we can see the whole performance we are getting quite accustomed to them. They have never stayed up more than 15 or 20 minutes. I suppose Doug wouldn’t want to call them aeroplanes at all with that record. The Chinese, too will never let on a thing surprises them. Somebody overheard a conversation between two coolies about the aeroplanes. “Oh,” said one chap, “these are not aeroplanes at all. They only stay up a little while. The Germans have them that stay up 40 days and 40 nights.” Which reminds me of a story Mr. Nicolson tells of the first trip a steamer took up river from Chungking. It was quite a novelty to the natives and they had to have an explanation of how it was propelled. The explanation offered was that there was a hole in the bottom and the sailors stuck their legs through and ran along the bottom of the river.
Rebels Prove Hard Nut
Our young war still continues. The Yunnanese, it seems, are proving hard nut to crack and Sulfu is still in their hands. Luchow and other upriver towns are overflowing with wounded and the surplus has been sent to Chungking. There are over 1000 wounded in Luchow, so we are told. The Northern troops keep coming upriver and all shipping is still at a standstill. There is fighting to the south of Chungking, near the Kweichow border, but we haven’t heard how it has come out yet. If as many Northerners are being rushed to the other borders of Kweichow as are coming here it won’t be long before it will be invaded. There has been fighting on the Hunan border of Kweichow, too, but evidently without anything very decisive yet.
A big batch of papers came today and among them The Christmas Expositor, which I have been enjoying very much, indeed, with all the pictures of Brantford’s soldiers, it looks as if the men were going to be found for the 125th battalion, too, from all accounts. With all the men required to make up these new battalions, I am wondering where men will be found for the drafts for the troops already at the front. There doesn’t’ seem to be any signs that the Germans are weakening any yet. Yesterday’s telegrams and today’s tell about a big German advance north of Verdun which from all accounts must quite equal the big French and British advance of last year. The article I read pointed out that every German put out of action meant the war was that much nearer an end, whether he was wounded or killed in France or beyond the Rhine, and probably this is the idea the Allies have – a campaign of attrition. We were hoping for big doings last spring and again this spring, but I have been wondering if the attrition process will not be kept up for another year and the final smash be in the summer of 1917. I am wondering if the Allies yet have the necessary margin of superiority which is necessary to advance – particularly in ammunitions. It was only last summer the Russians had to retire before the Germans for lack of ammunition. Can they have enough now for a large aggressive campaign in Poland as well as their campaign in the Caucasians? It seems doubtful.
A Chinese City
March 6, 1916
Chungking, China
Dear Daddy,
Just a line in the hopes that it will reach you somewhere about your birthday and be able to wish you many happy returns of the day. We are now having about the kind of weather you will probably be having about your birthday. Our seasons out here are about two months ahead of yours at home, with the extra two months in the summer and without the two of winter.
Once I got two pages of a letter written to you describing Chungking, but tore it up because I never got it finished. You remember you asked me to tell you some of the things about it in a letter a long time ago. Like most Chinese cities all its streets are narrow and winding and dirty. Chungking streets are perhaps dirtier than the average even, because so many are used by the water carriers. Most of the water used in the city is carried in by carriers in buckets swung one from each end of a carrying pole which goes across the shoulders. Eight out of nine of the city gates open on to one or other of the two rivers and there are water carriers from each gate, I think. The town is situated on a peninsula formed by the little river and the Yangtze. It is, of course a rocky peninsula and the rock crops up in many places right out into the streets. Sewer systems are as unknown as waterworks in China. They do have drains of a fashion, but they are poor affairs and often get clogged up. There is an electric light plant, but it is a pain just now and you need a lantern to see the lights. When it is at its best the streets are fairly well lighted for China, which means, that it is still necessary to carry a lantern when you wish to go out at nights. The streets are paved with stone slabs and everywhere you go there are steps to climb or descend. Sidewalks are unknown and sedan chair carriers, load carriers, pontes, and pedestrians get along as best they can in the eight-foot streets. Main streets are wider than this, but the streets are wider than this, but the widest would only pass as a lane at home. If you are “toney” enough you travel in a sedan chair; if not, on foot. There are a great many foreign style buildings in Chungking – more than in Chengdu by a long way, and more are going up all the time, but with the irregular streets the ensemble is not a pleasing one. All residences are surrounded by the usual compound wall, so that passing along a street one doesn’t see the residences at all, only the gateway, at which sits the gateman ready to take in the card of any callers. Chungking is so congested that a fire plays terrible havoc, so in self protection a great many fire walls have been built and one passes under the archways they form across the streets every few hundred feet in some parts of the city.
You have been so good in writing to me so frequently and at such length, Daddy, that I feel ashamed of the few letters I send you. But, of course, my weekly letter to mother is meant for all the family. The papers you so thoughtfully send out along all right. The latest to come was The Christmas Expositor, which was very interesting, indeed.
Sincerely,
Gordon
