BRIGANDS’ CAPTIVE

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 November 1928, Page 5

BRIGANDS’ CAPTIVE

N.Z. LADY’S GREAT COURAGE s

MANY HARDSHIPS ENDURED

(United Service.) (By Cable—Press Assn.—Copyright.)

(Recd. November 21, 11.30 a.m.) HONG KONG, November 20.

The story of a New Zealand lady’s indomitable pluck, whilst fortyifour days in a brigand gang’s captivity, has been related.

On September 18, Miss Watkins, an Australian, and Miss Blanche Tobin, a New Zealander, both of the Church Missionary Society, were travelling to Kweilin from Wuchow, on a river junk. They were surprised and captured by a Chinese brigand gang, and compelled, at rifle points, to go to the hills.

Miss Watkins, unable to keep the pace, 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 reluctance. The night-long march, lighted by electric 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 agreeing 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 the error. For many days and nights it was continual marching, Miss Tobin occasionally sleeping on straw, from sheer exhaustion. She once overheard a captor expressing a fear that soldiers were near. Consequently, she sang, hoping they would hear. The chief became angry and thrashed her with a stick, which twice broke. Then followed more jmarchihg through mountain fastnesses, the party once hiding for four days in a cave, thence to a forest in which they spent three weeks. During her whole captivity, she was only three nights under a roof.

Bishop Holden, meanwhile, offered himself in exchange for Miss Tobin, but the gang receiving the message refused the exchange. Miss Tobin was gradually losing strength, owing to lack of food and long wanderings. Her sfioes were worn out and the feet bare and bleeding. At this time, a letter was written to a Chinese Magistrate insisting on payment of the ransom. During the negotiations, the chief took Miss Tobin to a cave down the creek, maintaining a strict heavily-armed guard. A few days later, she was instructed to proceed with the brigands towards a district where the ransom would be paid. This necessitated four days’ marching. The captive was still showing remarkable pluck, although completely unfit to march, whereupon the phief realising the impossibility of Miss Tobin further walking, ordered a chair, in which she was carried. Ultimately they reached a point whence the captive was told to proceed alone. After a short distance, soldiers approached and informing bed of her freedom, provided essentials for carrying Miss Tobin back, and restoring her to her friends. She is now receiving much-needed treatment after experiences many men would have been unable to stand. n

COST OF TROOPS.

(British Official Wireless).

'LONDON; November 20. A representative of the War Office stated that the extra cost involved in keeping additional troops in Shanghai up to November was estimated at £4,250,000.

PIRATES’ LATEST OUTRAGE.

ATTACK OIL-LADEN JUNK.

(Received November 21, 9 a.m.) SHANGHAI, November 20. . At the very doors of Shanghai, piracy was 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 with 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 cargo useless for their purposes, demanded and obtained sixteen thousand dollars before liberating the junk.

MILLIONS STARVING.

SHANGHAI, November 20.

Twelve million Chinese have already reached starvation point. It is expected that the total will reach twenty million when the famine reaches its height in Northern and Central China, according to an official statement from the China International Famine Relief Committee, which estimated that the minimum required for relief work is four million sterling.