N.Z. LADY'S PLUCK

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 276, 21 November 1928, Page 7

N.Z. LADY'S PLUCK

DIRE PRIVATIONS. HELD BY CHINESE. Stirring Story Of Miss Tobin's Bravery. HELD TO £1000 RANSOM, (United Service.) (Received 12 noon.) HONGKONG, November 20. The story of the indomitable pluck of Miss E. Blanch Tobin, the New Zealand lady missionary, whilst 44 days in the captivity of a brigand gang has just been related.

On September 18 Miss Watkins, an Australian, and Miss Blanch Tobin, formerly of Auckland and Tauranga, and both of the Church Missionary Society, were travelling to Kwcilin from Wuchow on a river junk. They were surprised and captured by a Chinese brigand gang and compelled, at the rifle point, to go to the hills. Miss Watkins was unable to keep pace and was allowed to return, but Miss Tobin and two Chinese girls were hurried forward. They repeatedly feigned fatigue, but loaded rifles were employed to overcome further reluctance. An all nlgnt march, lighted by electric torches, brought the party to the brigand chief. Miss Tobin's first food was a little rice. The chief instructed the captive to write to the society demanding £3000, but he later agreed to accept £1000. It was then pointed out that Miss Tobin was believed to be a man. In fact the gang insisted on this but later admitted their error. There were many days and nights of continual marching, Miss Tobin occasionally sleeping on straw from sheer exhaustion. She once overheard her captors expressing the fear that soldiers were near and consequently she sang, hoping they would hear her. The chief became angry and thrashed her with a stick which twice broke. Then followed more marching through mountain fastnesses, the party onco biding for four days in a cave. Thence they went to the forest, in which they spent three weeks. During the whole of her captivity Mies Tobin was only three nights under a roof. Bishop Holden, meanwhile, offered himself in exchange for Miss Tobin, but the gang, receiving the message, refused the exchange.

Mies Tobin was gradually losing strength owing to the lack of food and the long wanderings. Her shoes had worn out and her feet were bare and bleeding. At this time a letter was written to a Chinese magistrate insisting on payment of the ransom, and during the negotiations the chief of the gang took Miss Tobin to a cave down » creek, maintaining a strict and heavily armed guard. A few days later the New Zealander was instructed to proceed with the brigands towards the district where the ransom was to be paid. This necessitated four days' marching, the captive still snowing remarkable pluck, although completely unfit to march. The ehief, realising the impossibility of Miss Tobin walking further ordered a chair, in which she was carried, and ultimately they reached the point whence the eaptive was told to proceed alone. After a short distance soldiers approached, informing her of her freedom and providing the essentials for carrying Miss Tobin back and restoring her to her friends. She is now receiving much needed'treatment after experiences that many men would have been unable to stand.