A BRAVE ACT

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 June 1936, Page 10

A BRAVE ACT

PISTOL-POINT ULTIMATUM. ij she entire European population of Slmmeen, white quarter of Canton, j Sc,'.them China, escaped massacre at .(th brutal hands of a horde of Chinle?; Bolshevik rebels. 1 .ml only to-day—l 3 years after — • it revealed how a British military . u-d'. ■ nturer. Captain Chick, saved their > liv ■; by forcing the Red War Lord, at * bl’s point, to countermand his or■.t was one of the bravest acts 1 have ever seen,” says Charles Kennett, , v.'h ). like Captain Chick, was in the . pay of General W tho. War Lord. Wu was pr<-parin'.; 1/ advance on Sh meen. He fully intended to let loo“o his rebel ; and they would certaii.iy have mass;-.cred the whites. | he few troops guard'ng the white qu: ■.■ter would have been helpless beio- the onrush of Reds who, in 1923, we ■.'! imposing a reign of terror tie •ighout Southern Chimi. (Wck. and Kennett wore desperate. Th' ; decided to take the hazardous st’ ' of forcing Wu to abandon his ph -. “Pushing our way through the crowd of officers.” says Kennett in his book, “Wormy Petre],” “we entered the War |Lo -I’s room and there found him in cm test; consultation with various of, hi' most highly-placed officials. I “(’hick came to the point and bluntly j asl :! what action was being taken with regard to Shameen. “Wu replied that Shameen had long be n a thorn in the side of the Southern Republic, and it was time the foreign powers recognised they could not invade the Southern Republic. “ ‘By that, you mean.’ sold Chick,) ‘you are going to let loose your swine! on thosa practically defenceless men,: women and children, guarded by al me:e ehandful of soldiers.’ !

“ ‘My dear Chick,’ replied Wu. ‘you arc one of us and you know warfare it not a pretty sight.’ “ ‘I don’t give a damn about your pretty sight . . . but if you do not rescind any orders you may have given and send definite instructions that no acts of hostility is to be shown towards Shameen, I'll shoot. . . . “ ‘Maybe I won’t leave this room alive, but you can bet your cotton pants you won’t. “ ‘Either you give those orders here and now, Wu, or ’ and Chick had his anti aatic in his hand. “The officers drew. back. They were used to sudden death and they could see by the look on Chick’s strained and haggard face that he meant every word he uttered. “Wu also realised it and gave the orders Chick demanded.” Tn. a matter of minutes one Briton facing dozens of fully armed Chinese and himself armed with only a small automatic, had saved thousands of lives. “Without doubt.” says Kennett, "that act of Chick’s stands as one of the greatest played in that part of the world, and here is one who takes his hat off to him.”