LOOTED EXPRESS

Evening Star, Issue 21292, 22 December 1932, Page 16

LOOTED EXPRESS

BANDITS RAID A TRAIN MANCHURIAN ADVENTURE Mr J. M. Penlington, the Tokio correspondent of the London ‘Daily • Telegraph,’ who was a passenger in the Harbin-Changchun express when it was looted by bandits, tells a dramatic story of the attack. Mr Penlington was in Manchuria on holiday, and had just arrived at Harbin afterhis alarming experience. It had previously been reported that the raiders had captured him. I have just arrived here after a thrilling adventure with bandits, Mr Penlington telegraphed his paper. Tne express on which I was travelling left Changchun for Harbin on Sunday afternoon. All the talk was of the attack on a train on the previous day, when eleven passengers were killed. Before long we had a similar experience. Our train was derailed during the night bv raiders after a terrific fusillade. They invaded the carriages and stripped us of all our clothing and other belongings.. Four soldiers were killed and many persons wounded. The first-class passengers reached Harbin, having lost everything. Twenty-four hours had. been spent in covering a mere 150 miles. We had set out from Changchun on a heavy Russian train laden with hundreds of people bound for the north. A number of Japanese soldiers who had been wounded in' Saturday’s engagement were also on board. LIGHTS GO OUT. After crossing the Sungari River bridge, thirty miles south of Harbin, the first-class passengers were congratulating themselves that the danger zone had been passed when the train was suddenly brought to a standstill by the derailment of the tender and the foremost coach, accompanied by a terrible fusillade from the darkness. Tho lights were i,>.nmediately extinguished. The Manchurian guard replied to the attackers, who, however, soon boarded the carriages. A scene of indescribable confusion ensued. Many shots were fired, and the savage shouts of the marauders mingled with the shrieks of the women in the compartments. Tho first-class compartments were tho main objective of the raiders, who swarmed into the corridors. The passengers crouched behind the closed doors of the coupes, but these were soon forced. The male inmates were violently handled. They were robbed of all their possessions and compelled to remove and hand over their clothing. The foreign women behaved, splendidly. They were deprived of all their jewellery, but, unlike the men, were not forced to surrender their clothing. The victims of the outrage comprised people of about a dozen nationalities. They included Mr Gassek, agent of the Wagon-Lits in the Far East, and also British, Americans, Japanese, and Russians. „ I observed that some of the raiders wore military uniforms, but the majority of them were in mufti. _ Among them were mere boys, armed with rifles and revolvers. These they flourished in the faces of the helpless passengers, at the same time giving vent to hysterical cries. Many acts of violence were committed by them. I cannot speak as to what happened in the other carriages, but the interior of ours after a brief half-hour of havoc was completely wrecked. .Calm succeeded pandemonium. The bandits withdrew, laden with their booty. Ihe long train stood dark and silent. • Ihe lights were not switched on again, and the passengers spoke only in whispers. TRAIN GOES ON. As last, when it seemed to' be confirmed that the raiders had really gone, the train steamed slowly hack to the next wayside station, where it waited until daylight. A start was then made for Harbin. . The passengers were conveyed in wagons of the breakdown train which had come to the rescue. It included an armoured car manned by Japanese troops. _ , Four soldiers—twp Japanese and two Manchurians —were killed, and several passengers wounded. Among the latter, a pathetic figure, was a Korean woman with a baby at her breast and her clothing soaked with An examination by daylight of the scene of the attack showed that the raiders had selected an excellent vantage ground for their operations. They had made use of a s°hd old Russian defence outpost. They fired from behind its entrenchments, having the. train at their mercy. It is estimated that they numbered sixty-hve. As a result of the epidemic of 1 auway outrages, it has been decided to run trains only during the hours of daylight. They will be guardedl exclusively by Japanese troops, no Manchurians being employed. It is generally agreed that the activities of the bandits to the south of the Great Wall are inspired b.w political motives. In Harbin the inhabitants are on the verge of panic. But the fact that all nationalities are not disposed to give way to it is shown by an advertisement in the Russian papers. This states that the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank will in no circumstances pay a ransom it a member of its staff is earned off.