STILL MISSING

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 221, 14 June 1930, Page 7

STILL MISSING

Missionaries in China

CAPTURED BY BANDITS

Captain H. S. Blackburne, hon. secretary of the China Inland Mission in Wellington, writes as follows

“In the cable news of your paper of March 31 it was mentioned that the same bandit gang which captured and murdered three Finnish women missionaries recently was reported to have captured three others at Yuau-Chow, west of Kiangsi. These were Mr. K. W. and Mrs. Porteous and Miss N. E. Gemmell, of Yuan-Chow (Province Kiangsi), of the China Inland Mission. In the June ‘China’s Millions,’ a copy of which I received to-day from Melbourne, I see that the minds of many were relieved by receipt of a telegram reporting the release of Miss Gemmell, but the C.I.M. is still without news of Mr. and Mrs. Porteous. The love of the local Chinese Christians was manifested by their raising more than 1000 dollars, and giving up their jewellery to the value of another 100 dollars, both of which they handed over to the Communist leaders, begging that the captives be set free. The money was accepted, but the request was refused. “A few days ago Mr. Hoste, the general director of the China Inland Mission in Shanghai, wrote saying ‘that no further news has yet been received concerning Mr. and Mrs. Porteous, excepting that a week after their captivity he had received a short note from Mr. Porteous, in which he wrote: ‘The lov-ing-kindness of the Lord has been around us in many ways, touching the hearts of our captors to be kind to us. We are sitting in a small room waiting the trumpet call to glory. We have done quite a big mountain road to-day; our tired feet may soon be walking in Emmanuel’s Land. What a joy to meet Him, whom we love, and have so unfaithfully served.’ “Their captors were apparently not ordinary brigands, but a large, highlyorganised band of Communists, calling themselves the ‘Red Army,’ who looted the city and demanded huge ransom for their victims. “The three Finnish ladies were also associate missionaries of the C.I.M. Various reports, some of them conflicting, have been received, the latest being that Miss Cajander died from exposure; and that Misses Ingnian and Hedengren were subsequently killed. “In the same province Mr. and Mrs. Seipel, and their little boy, who are also associates of the mission, were taken captive by well-armed ‘Reds’; their house was looted, and they were threatened with death unless a very large ransom was forthcoming. This was declined, but the Christians of their own accord managed to raise about £lOO for their ransom, and these friends were released. Mrs. Seipel writes that there was a rumour of their being recaptured, so that she and her husband were in hiding. About 4000 of these evil men occupied the city, destroying everything they could not carry away with them.”