CAPTURED MISSIONARIES

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 138, 13 June 1929, Page 10

CAPTURED MISSIONARIES

BRIGANDS DEMAND RANSOM.

THE SHEKICHEN MASSACRE.

TERRIBLE FAMINE CONDITIONS,

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

DUNEDIN, this day,

With regard to the cabled news that bandit hordes descended upon Shekichen, in West Honan, and captured six missionaries whom they were holding for ransom, and that the city had been raided and looted, and hundreds of Chinese massacred, the secretary for the China Inland Mission in Dunedin states that this city is the old station of the Rev. H. S. Conway, who visited Dunedin a few weeks ago. There is a Christian church established there with over 900

members. Mr. Conway's daughter, Miss Norah Conway, was born dn that city, and since April last has been located there. She joined the ranks of the China Inland Mission last year. Her name is not amongst the list of captives reported as taken by the bandits.

Concerning missionaries in the hands of the brigands, Mr. and Mrs. E. Weller have been in China since 1909, Mr. and Mrs. J. Walker since 1925, and Miss J. P. Brook since 1906, so they are experienced in Chinese ways.

Mrs. Weller, writing by a recent mail of famine conditions, says: "Most of our tinie is taken up with meeting and seeking to deal with appeals for help. This famine is terrible. In one village alone 27 people died of cold and starvation in a single day, and the day . before 17 had been carried out from one temple outside the city gates, where beggars and refugees are herded. One poor woman I have here, speaking to me while I am writing this, said, 'I think we can manage to. get if we can get one small meal in nvo days.' Think of it, and there are still four months before harvest. Hundreds must die before that time, nay i thousands."