BRUTALLY MURDERED

Evening Star, Issue 20613, 13 October 1930, Page 9

BRUTALLY MURDERED

MISSIONARIES IN CHINA FIENDISH TORTURE BY COMMUNISTS Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SHANGHAI, October 11. Details of the atrocious murder of two English lady missionaries by Communists in the vicinity of Kienningfu, in Northern Fukien, are available following tho return of the British Consul (Mr Martin), who sought to effect their rescue by the payment of a ransom. Whereas it was first reported that the ladies were shot because the ransom was not paid, it is now shown that both were clumsily and brutally beheaded after subjection to diabolical indignities and frightful bodily and mental torture.

Tho ladies were captives for three months in the hands of Communists of the most fiendish type. On one occasion—the International Labour Day—they were compelled to sit chained to chairs for four hours bareheaded in a blistering sun during a mock trial of four artti-Commuhists, following which the four men’s heads were hacked off within a few feet of the ladies, who were informed that a similar fate awaited them if the ransom was not' paid, A missionary go-between offered 50,000 dollars as ransom, but this was rejected, and a sum of 100,000 dollars was demanded. The Government troops made no definite effort to attack the Communists, who boast that they can do as they like with foreigners. The latter throughout China are now bitterly condemning the Government’s ineptitude. <fhe Nanking authorities are seriously alarmed at the recrudescence of Communism at their own back door. Nanebang is in like jeopardy. [A message from Peking on October 3 stated: “According to a message which has reached the British Consul at Foochow, Misses Nettleton and Harrison, the British missionaries who have been held on ransom by the Communist bandits in North Fukien since June, seem to have been shot by the captors following the failure of protracted negotiations for their release. It is understood that the British authorities are deferring action pending the receipt of full details.”]