RELEASED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 250, 21 October 1932, Page 7

RELEASED.

Kidnapped Britishers Held By

Chinese Bandits.

MAN AND WOMAN FREED,

(Received 11 a.m.)

LONDON, October 20,

Mrs. Muriel Pawley and Mr. Charles Corkran, British employees of the Asiatic Petroleum Co., who were kidnapped on September 7 last, and held to ransom by Manchukuo bandits, have been released.

Both Mrs. Pawley and Mr. Corkran have arrived at Pan-shan, north of Newchwang, and are reported to be well.

Japanese, Manchukuo and British authorities participated in the long drawn-out negotiations with the elusive bandits, and considerable anxiety has been felt regarding the health and safety of the captives.

Their relatives in England were overjoyed to-day at the news of the release,

Mrs. Pawley and Mr. Charles Corkran, son of Major-General Sir Charles Corkran, were out riding with Mr. Duncan Mackintosh, and were attended by two Chinese grooms. The party was surrounded and captured. Mr. Mackintosh, who also is an employee of the Asiatic Petroleum Company at Newchwang, succeeded in escaping, and he immediately gave the alarm.

On October 12, Mrs. Pawley, who is about 25 years of age, writing to her father, Dr. Phillips, said: "The bandits absolutely refuse to reduce our raneom from 1,000,000 dollars.* It is pretty well hell here. We received your parcels. Everything is O.K. Bless you all for the vermin powder. The vermin are pretty bad, but they have not reached my chin yet. Next ctime your messengers come they, must bring 30,000 dollars and 200 ounces of opium, or eke good-bye to our ears. The bandit chicf is fed up with us. We are trusting you implicitly. Please help ue. We are keeping our tails up." Mr. Corkran adds the postscript: "Bung ho"

BILLIARDS. Lindrum Opposes New BalkLine Rule. ANOTHER VARIATION MOOTED. (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, October 20. Walter Lindrum's opposition is the death-knell of the balk-line rule, says the "Evening News." Newman, formerly enthusiastic, is now lukewarm, Davis is indifferent, while McConachy and Smith are strongly favourable. The forthcoming Gold Cup tournament, however, will be played under the ordinary rules, with a stipulation that after 75 successive cannons a losing hazard must be played.

"Hazard" in "Sporting Life,- of September 14, had this to say: It would be unfair to the Billiards Board of Control adversely to criticise their experimental rule of once "crossing the line" in the scoring of each hundred points, until it has been given a fair trial. We must wait patiently until December 31, when all the leading professionals, having tested the scheme, meet in consultation and decide as to whether they are agreeable to the continuance of a method deliberately aimed at lessening the phenomenal scoring of recent years. I know Lindrum so well that I believe he will immediately express the opinion that if his friends Newman, Davis and McConachy are satisfied with the new conditions, he will raise no objection to them.. If he did —and Walter is a very determined man, with views of his own —I think he would "put the cat among the pigeons." Even the Board of Control would hesitate a long time before any action on their part would tend to prevent the frequent visits to this country of the greatest genius the game has produced. FOOTBALL AT HOME. RUGBY UNION AND LEAGUE. (Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, October 20. Newport defeated Oxford University at Rugby by six points to four. In the Northern Union Yorkshire Cup, Halifax beat Huddersfield by two points to nil in their second round replay. THROUGH SERVICE. Hope for Australia-England Route. MAY BE NEXT YEAR. (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, October 20. Colonel Shelmydine, Director of Civil Aviation, at the Air Ministry, addressing the Royal United Service Institution, said he confidently hopes to start a through air service to Australia in 1933. HINKLER FLIGHT. TRIP TO AUSTRALIA. (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, October 20. The Australian Press Association learns that Mr. Bert Hinkler will shortly make a flight to Australia.