Through Bandit Lines

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 203, 11 August 1927, Page 8

Through Bandit Lines

PERILOUS JOURNEY IN CHINA NEW ZEALANDER AND HIS FOUR CHILDREN. Letters telling thrilling tales of journeys through bandit-infested country have been received in Auckland by the father of Mr A. Hayman, a New Zealander of the China Inland Mission. Mr Hayman who was once on the staff of au Auckland drapery firm, has been a missioner in China for lb years. Lately he has been stationed at Kweiyang in the province of Kwenchow. In the middle of May he was told by the British Consul that it would bo advisable to leave for the coast. Together with his four children (one a baby of fifteen months) he started his journey through the dangerous country on May 17. The party was escorted from the town by a band of Chinese Christians. Altogether the party was 22 days on the road ,travelling in chairs. carried by coolies. During the journey the coolies rested only one day, for the party was anxious to get through quickly because of the desperate brigands. On one stretch of the road they came across a bady-iufes-ted brigand district, and they were escorted at times by soldiers rang ing in number from two to fifty. After knowing the terrible fate of the Rev Morris Slitcher and his i.ttle daughter, who were attacked and Killed by bandits. Mr Hayman and his party were in a terrified state of nervous tension when they were passing through the district where the barbarous cruelties were perpetrated. “We prayed nearly every step of the way,” said Mr Hamman in the letter “because the Yunnan district is overrun with brigands. “When we had gone through the worst part,” the letter continued, “we passed the new magistrate for the Chaotung and his caravan. He had only just got into the worst part of the district when he was robbed by brigands. The rest of the journey was made by rail and then wc caught the steamer via Hongkong to Shanghai. ’ ’

“My son’s wife died a week after the baby girl was born,” said the father of the missioner, “and Miss Craig, a trained nurse and Presbyterian medical missionary looked after the baby and became very fond of her. The nurse wanted to take the baby with her to America, for she Was leaving with the Rev Morris Slitcher and his party. It was a most fortunate thing that my son did not lei. the little child go. for it is quite possible that she would have been murdered by the bandits who committed the atrocities on that unfortunate party. As it was, the journey was a tragic one, for the missioner and his little daughter were killed by the bandits, while two women were very badly treated.