Page 87 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 87
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 87
down to die from slow starvation without making any effort to live. The instinct of
self-preservation is one of the strongest natural laws and so in Kansuh, and other
parts of China, thousands of men, yes, and women too, have obeyed the impulse
of this instinct and when all other means of obtaining food have failed, they have
taken weapons in their hands and set out to prey upon their fellow man. I am not
stating that famine is the sole cause for bandit conditions obtaining, but in support
of my statements I shall have more evidence to offer.
By the 29th March we had reached this city of Kuyuan, to which I refer you on
the map. Many may consider this location to be fairly far west in China. Many years
ago a gentlemen proceeded by steamer up the Yangtze to Hankow. Inspired and
enthused by the novelty of his new surroundings he commenced his first home letter
with, "Dear Mother. Here I sit writing to you from the very heart of China.” It would
have surprised him, and may surprise many of you here, to learn that Hankow is a
very long way from “the heart of China.” If you draw diagonals across China and her
Dependencies you will find that those lines intersect a few miles east of this city of
Lanchow. And so you will see that by the time we got to Kuyuan we were only
approaching the “heart of China,” and the western boundary still lay some one
hundred and fifty day’s journey further on toward the setting sun.
down to die from slow starvation without making any effort to live. The instinct of
self-preservation is one of the strongest natural laws and so in Kansuh, and other
parts of China, thousands of men, yes, and women too, have obeyed the impulse
of this instinct and when all other means of obtaining food have failed, they have
taken weapons in their hands and set out to prey upon their fellow man. I am not
stating that famine is the sole cause for bandit conditions obtaining, but in support
of my statements I shall have more evidence to offer.
By the 29th March we had reached this city of Kuyuan, to which I refer you on
the map. Many may consider this location to be fairly far west in China. Many years
ago a gentlemen proceeded by steamer up the Yangtze to Hankow. Inspired and
enthused by the novelty of his new surroundings he commenced his first home letter
with, "Dear Mother. Here I sit writing to you from the very heart of China.” It would
have surprised him, and may surprise many of you here, to learn that Hankow is a
very long way from “the heart of China.” If you draw diagonals across China and her
Dependencies you will find that those lines intersect a few miles east of this city of
Lanchow. And so you will see that by the time we got to Kuyuan we were only
approaching the “heart of China,” and the western boundary still lay some one
hundred and fifty day’s journey further on toward the setting sun.
