MISS TOBIN’S CAPTIVITY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 50, 22 November 1928, Page 9

MISS TOBIN’S CAPTIVITY

STORY OF INDOMITABLE PLUCK WHILE HELD BY CHINESE BRIGANDS LONG' MARCHES AND LITTLE FOOD The remarkable pluck shown by Miss Tobin, the missionary from New Zealand, while in the hands of Chinese brigands, is described in the following message. (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (United Service.! .Hong-Kong, November 20. The story of a New Zealand lady s indomitable pluck while for forty-foui days captive of a brigand gang has just been related. On September 18, Miss Watkins, an Australian, and Miss Blanche Tobin, a New Zealander, both members of the Church Missionary Society, were travelling to Kweilin from Wuchow on a river junk. Suddenly they were surprised and captured by a Chinese brigand gang. They were compelled at the rifle point to go to the hills. Miss Watkins was unable to keep pace, and was allowed to return. Miss Tobin and two Chinese girls were hurried forward. They repeatedly feigned fatigue, but loaded rifles were employed to overcome further resistance. Marched All Night. A night-long march, guided by eleetrie 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 £3OOO. Later, he agreed to accept £lOOO. 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. For many days and nights there was continual marching, Miss Tobin occasionally sleeping on straw in sheer exhaustion. She once overheard her captors expression a fear that soldiers were near, and consequently she sang, hoping that they would hear. The chief became angry and thrashed her with a stick, which he twice broke. More marching followed through mountain fastnesses, where the party once hid for four days in a cave. Then they entered the forest in which they spent three weeks. During the whole of her captivity Miss Tobin was only three nights under a roof. Gang Refuses an Exchange. Bishop Holden in the meanwhile offered himself in exchange for Miss Tobin, but the gang, on receiving the message, refused the exchange. Miss . Tobin was gradually losing strength owing to lack of food and the long wanderings. Her shoes were worn out and her feet bare and bleeding. At this time a letter was written to a Chinese Magistrate, insisting on the payment of a ransom. During the negotiations the chief took Miss Tobin to a cave down a creek, maintaining a strict and heavily armed guard. ' A few days later she was instructed to proceed with the brigands towards the district where the ransom was to be paid. This necessitated four days’ marching. The captive was still showing remarkable pluck, although completely unlit to march, whereupon the’chief, realising the impossibility of Miss Tobin’s walking' further, ordered a chair in which she was carried. Ultimately they reached a point from which the captive was told to proceed alone. After a short distance soldiers approached, informing her of her freedom. They provided essentials and carried Miss Tobin back, restoring her to her friends. She is now receiving muchneeded treatment after experiences many men would be unable to stand. ANOTHER CASE OF PIRACY FIFTEEN SAILORS KILLED (United Service.) Shanghai, November 20. At the very doors of Shanghai a piracy has been committed which the Chinese authorities are endeavouring to keep dark. It appears that a junk laden with bean oil from Dairen, with a crew of eighteen, encountered a pirate craft and sixty men. A regular battle ensued, resulting in the killing of fifteen of the junk’s crew and an unknown number of pirates, who, finding the earsro useless for their purposes, demanded and obtained 16,000 dollars before liberating the junk. FAMINE IN NORTH AND CENTRAL CHINA MILLIONS AT STARVATION POINT (Australian Press Association.) .Shanghai, November 20. Twelve million Chinese have already reached starvation point, and it is expected that the total will reach twenty millions when the famine reaches its height in Northern and Central China,

according to an official statement from the China International Famine Relief Committee. The latter estimates the minimum sum required for relief work at £4,000,000. COST OF BRITISH TROOPS IN SHANGHAI (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, November 20. A representative of the War Office stated in the House of Commons that the extra cost involved in keeping additional troops in Shanghai up to November was estimated at £4,250,000.