"Backward Peasants"

When it comes to boasting of their "agrarian reforms," Chinese Communists like to point to Hupeh province in South China, and to the farmers of Hsi Shui county in particular.

Last week the Communist Yangtze Daily had to eat some of its glowing words about the model residents of Hsi Shui. "Backward peasants and disgruntled Communist cadres," armed only with sticks and swords, had swept into the village land reform offices, killed the Communist boss and several of his henchmen. They were tired, the revolters shouted, of being the victims of land reform.

The next day, when they marched on the Communists' county office, the Yangtze Daily went on approvingly, they were met on a grassy hillside by well-armed Red troops. When the shooting was over, only 23 of Hsi Shui's 280 discontented farmers were still alive.

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