BRAVE WOMEN’S FATE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 3238, 4 December 1930, Page 7

BRAVE WOMEN’S FATE

BEHEADED BY BANDITS AFTER MONTHS OF AGONY. TORTURED IN MOUNTAIN STRONGHOLD. Returning to Foochow after a long and arduous journey into the interior in an effort to save the lives of two British women missionaries, Mr. A. J. Martin, the British Consul at Foochow, and the Rev. Alfred Sills, of the Church Missionary Society, related a graphic story of the diabolical barbarity of Chinese brigands. They brought back details of the terrible physical and mental torture inflicted on Miss Eleanor Harrison, 63, a native of Cookley, near Kidderminster, and Miss Edith Nettleton, 60, whose home was at Halifax, Yorkshire. After being held to ransom the women were beheaded in ghastly fashion and not shot, as was at first supposed. Miss Harrison and Miss Nettleton had been in captivity for three months in a Communist lair in the mountains in North Fukien, where they were subjected to unusually cold-blooded brutalities and mental anguish. They were allow'ed neither liberty, exercise, nor privacy, and were guarded night and day by at least four armed brigands, who constantly suggested that a horrible doom was impending. A “go between” who was obtained and went to the Communist headquarters, came back with the news that on September 1 the Reds brought Miss Harrison and four Chinese prisoners out on to their execution ground. After four hours’ farcical trial, during which the prisoners stood unprotected from the sun, they shot one Chinese and clumsily beheaded the three others. Miss Harrison was reprieved for a fortnight, to enable the go-between to return to Kienning with the demand for a ransom of £7500. Failing that, the Reds stated that Miss Harrison’s head would be sent to Kienning, and if that failed to produce a big sum Miss Nettleton’s would follow. They added that if the Church or foreigners were unable to pay, then either the local or Nanking authorities must. After receiving the best available Chinese advice the gobetween returned to the Reds with a counter-offer of £750, but* that was rejected with scorn. Then it was de cided to pay £3750, and the gobetween returned to the Communists to arrange methods of remitting the ransom. Finally, after an attack by a rival band on the Communist headquarters, the two women were taken to a lonely house on the hillside and beheaded. A letter written by the Communists after the murder stated: “We have power to take you foreigners, hold you to ransom, and kill you.” An expression of extreme regret at the deplorable incident has been elicited from the Chinese Foreign

Minister, Mr. C. T. Wang. “The Chinese people,” declared Mr. Wang, “are even more indignant over this outrage than our British friends, and the whole nation is one with me in extending our heartfelt sympathy with the victims’ families. The outrage took place in a region controlled by the rebel Lu Hsing-pang, who had previously kidnapped six members of the Fukien Provincial Government, while the Central Government was busily engaged in exterminating the Northern l’ebellion.

“Now that the rebellion has been successfully put down, Government forces will be immediately released to supress the Communist bandits and finally exterminate the ‘Red’ menace.”