MURDER IN CHINA

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 March 1935, Page 4

MURDER IN CHINA

MARTYRED MISSIONARIES VANCOUVER. March 2. Ylow the two young Canadian missionaries. the Rev. John Stain and his wife were butchered by Chinese Communists at a remote mission in the Province of Arhwei was told by the Rev. C. K. Lo, Chinese evangelist of the China Inland Mission who brought out the three-months-old daughter of the murdered missionaries. The missionaries were married in Shanghai two years ago, before they entered the mission field. They -were later sent to a territory served by Tsingteh, GO miles south of Wuhu. Here the Magistrate assured them of his protection, and promised to warn them of the approach of Communists. On December 6. they arrived at their new home at the mission compound. Just before noon, the compound was invaded by a horde of ragged young bandits, armed with rifles, old-fashion-ed swords and crude weapons. Their leader told Mr. Stam that he must prepare to go to Miaochao, ten miles distant. Peasants met them, and asked Mr. Stam where he was going. “I believe we are on our way to another world,’’ he answered. MR. LO TELLS HIS STORY. “I arrived in Miaochao at 4 o’clock on the 6th., with my wife and baby son,” said Mr. Lo. “Next morning, the Communists captured me, but released me when my friends in the village fold them I was a dealer in medicines. Three days later, prior to the arrival of Government troops, the bandits retreated to Hung Tseng. My wife and I were hiding in the hills, when a villager told me the Stains had been murdered. I found their bodies.” The postmaster, who feared the Communists, told Mr. Lo they had permitted Mr. Stain to write to his headquarters. His wife had pinned their last tcn-dollar bill in the baby’s sleeping bag. Most of the villagers had fled. The pair spent a night of horror in an abandoned house while Mr. Stam was beaten and his wife maltreated. Next day, Mr. and Mrs. Stam were led. naked ( and bound, through the village, while the bandit leader harangued the villagers and told them they were “foreign devils" and friends of President Chiang Kai-shek, and must die. A Chinese merchant, a Christian, knelt before the band and pleaded for their lives. His skull was crushed by a soldier’s sword, as Mr. Stam was pleading with the leader to spare him. Mr. Stam fell to a thrust from a big knife in the leader’s hand, while his band shouted with glee, and the villagers cowered in terror. A young Communist, about 16, stepped up with a long, double-edged sword slung on his shoulder, and Mrs. Stam joined her husband. Young bandits kicked their bodies as the gang formed up and marched away.

Mr. Lo bought two coffins, and placed the bodies in them. Hearing whispers from the villagers about a baby, he went to the abandoned house, and found the child. Helen Priscilla, cooing contentedly. Mr. Lo then abandoned the idea of taking the bodies with him. and putting his own baby and the Stums' baby in coolie baskets. he slung them over his shoulder, arriving al Wubu in an exhausted t-tatc. During their trip over the mountains Mr. and Mrs. Lo ate nothing but wild chestnuts. Mr. Lo's wife, aided by powdered milk that they purchased, tendered the Stains’ baby.