"IMPERIALISTIC SPIES"

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4694, 16 May 1935, Page 2

"IMPERIALISTIC SPIES"

SENTENCE OF RED TRIBUNAL. AN AMAZING DOCUMENT.

A copy- of an amazing' document issued by the so-called Soviet Republic of China appears in the May issue of China’s Inland Mission. This tells of the trial of Messrs. Hayman and Bosshardt by the Commu'nists, in which these two missionaries were falsely charged with being Imperialistic spies, who had been opposing the counter-revolutionary military operations. It will be remembered that they were captured early in October, and towards the end of December this trial took place. The

following is a portion of the translation of the written sentence of judgment, by the Provisional Revolutionary Tribunal, of December 13, 1934:

“According to the evidence held by the Government Prosecutor and the acknowledgment by the accused in the court, the said two men have been appointed by the British Imperialistic Government to come to China, and by means of the Christian religion deceive and bring under their control the masses of the people; also under this pretext to spy out the lay of the land and be the advance guard of the Imperialistic troops for the partition of China. The two accused before the court once and again gave proof that formerly the Imperialists swallowed up the small and weak nations of India, and the Americans, Africa'n and Australian continents, usually by a

policy of first sending missionaries to deceive and bring’ the people under their control, using capitalistic methods to fleece the people and military power to swallow them up whole.

“The said R. A. Bosshardt is a Swiss. In 1922, of his own initiative, he came to China as a missionary, and at Chungking and other places has skulked around for a period of 12 years. )

“The said A. Hayman served in the British Army of New Zealand. In 1913 of his own initiative, he came as a missionary to China, and at Panghai and other places has skulked around for a period of 21 years. “The two prisoners in all the above places, by means of the Bible, ‘drugged’ the masses and brought them under thir control, with the hope that they might thereby destroy their opposition to the Imperialistic policy. At the same time they got into association with the gentry and land-

owners and made use of feudalistic power to suppress and fleece the masses, thus becoming the advance guard of the Imperialistic soldiers to partition and enslave China. The said prisoners, with the object of avoiding the suspicion of the masses, changed into Chinese dress and, under the name of preaching, constantly carried around a camera, entering into important strategic places and villages, and ascertaining the direction of the mountains and ranges, the width of the roads, the depth of the rivers, the wealth or otherwise of the foodstuffs, and all the manners and customs of the people, etc. Moreover, they took advantage of their opportunity to photograph important mountains and streams (for evidence of this we have the said prisoners’ cameras and many photographs of important military places i'n Kweichow). The said prisoners have learnt the Miao langauge and have deeply entered into the

caves of the people, and, availing themselves of the lack of civilisation of these tribes, hoped first to enslave them and thus bring to pass the British Imperialistic policy in China. Because of the hatred of the masses for the secret malevolence of the said prisoners, they came in crowds to the 6th Red Army, informed them of their crimes, and then guided the advance guard to take the said prisoners and their families—four people prisoner, and demanded that they should be heavily fined. This tribunal of the 6th Red Army decided that the said prisoners and their families should each be fined 100,000 dollars —that is, R. A. Bosshardt 200,000 dollars and A. Hayman 400,000 dollars —a'nd for the present to release the families, with orders speedily to pay up the fines, the said prisoners to be kept in detention, with a reasonable amount of liberty; but the said prisoners not only did not repent of their wickedness, but dared, while the army

was on the march, secretly to note and record the strength and numbers of the Red Army. “On the night of December 17, at the instigation of the prisoner (R. A. Bosshardt), they broke the wooden wall of the place of detention and escaped, hoping to let the Kuo Ming Tang militarists have the information which they had collected, so that they might be able to advance and attack the territory of the Chinese Soviet Republic. When they were recaptured, the said R. A. Bosshardt not only did not repent and submit to bonds, but dared to resist arrest with a stick; afterwards being surrounded by the crowd, he was finally captured. The above facts were acknowledged by the said prisoners in court.

“R. A. Bosshardt, by means of Chistianity, has deceived the masses of China, and has secretly acted as a military spy for the advance of Imperialistic troops for the partition of China. He should, according to the law and the demand of the masses, suffer the extreme penalty; but, realising that the said prisoner does not understand the Soviet laws, we specially award a lenient sentence —from the day of capture to suffer imprisonment for one year and six months, a'nd, in addition, a fine of 100,000 dollars (with the previous _ fine amounting to 300,000 dollars). “A. Hayman, who used the Christian teaching to deceive the masses of China and secretly acted as a spy for the advance guard of the Imperialistic troops for the partition of China, in consideration of the fact that the said prisoner does not understand the Soviet laws, we specially award a lenient sentence of one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 dollars (with the previous fine amounting to a total of 450,000 dollars) .

“The two prisoners have no right of appeal. Half of the fine must be paid by February 25, 1935, and the rest by the end of March. If the time limit “is exceeded and the fine not paid, there will be an additional fine as ordered by the courts.”