ABOARD SPECIAL TRAIN EN ROUTE TO MUKDEN, Manchuria, Sept. 20, 1931 (UP) -- Tens of thousands of Chinese, including many soldiers, fled southward toward Peiping tonight amid scenes of utmost confusion.
The occupation of Manchurian cities, including Mukden, the capital, by Japanese troops after severe fighting started the migration without adequate preparations. Most of the refugees were hungry and the majority were greatly alarmed, if not panic-stricken. Officers estimated that 9,000 troops have evacuated Mukden.
Train after train of soldiers en route to China proper passed our train as we traveled northward toward Mukden. The Manchurian troops had been ordered by Marshal Chang Hsueh-Liang not to resist the Japanese invasion. Many of them had taken their wives and children aboard the armored trains. Horses and ammunition and family possessions also were loaded on, until the carriages were packed with a strange and motley cargo.
The commissary had not been able to make preparation for the evacuation, and food was lacking on most of the trains.
The civil population also evacuated various Manchurian cities in fear of the Japanese forces and all classes of Chinese were en route southward.
