CAPTURED BY BANDITS

Northern Advocate, 23 March 1936, Page 8

CAPTURED BY BANDITS

WOMAN’S ADVENTURES IN CHINA Born in a ship, left in China a penniless widow with two children, twice kidnapped by bandits, living in sampans, riding in native carts far into a hostile interior, fighting to earn a living, and at last establishing a great business in the Far East. Such is the record of the most amazing woman of China, who recently arrived in London, states an exchange. She is beautiful Mrs Beatrice Thompson, an Englishwoman, who went to help spur on British manufacturers to further trade development in China. She helped to organise the British Empire and China Trade Fair at British Industries House. Bom On Ship. Mrs Thompson’s father was a Lancashire engineer*, one of the pioneers who went out in the early days for the construction of the Chinese railways. She, herself,' was born in the ship which carried her mother to join him at Hong Kong. In 1923 she suddenly found herself a widow with two children depending on her. “I was practically penniless,” she said in an interview. “As a matter of fact I had just about £lO in the world when I arrived with my children in Hong Kong to start my business. “I had worked as a "journalist but decided to go in for advertising and sales promotion. I rented an office, engaged two Chinese assistants, and called my organisation the Advertising and Publicity Bureau of China and Malay. That remains its name to this day. Now, however, I have twenty-eight assistants in Hong Kong and seventeen in Singapore. v “My work takes me into the remotest parts of South China, educating the Chinese to the value of British goods. Pirates and bandits are my worst enemies.

Escaped Each Time.

“Twice I have been actually seized, but each time managed to escape, on both occasions being saved by my knowledge of the Chinese character. The first time was when I was travelling far into the interior on a oneeyed Chinese railway. Suddenly the train hit an animal which had strayed on to the line from a herd. The jolt derailed the engine and killed the animal. Immediately the entire horde of Chinese passengers became a seething mass of frantically excited humanity.

“The mob seized the cattle-herder, and for no apparent reason began to torture him cruelly. In the meantime some villagers came out with

knives and began to carve up the the dead animal. Watching my chance, I seized my suitcase and ran along the river bank. I had not gone far, however, before three men, armed with knives and) pistols, suddenly jumped from some bushes and seized me. Temptation Too Much. “For half an hour I argued with them that I had no money, but thefr scoffed at that. Suddenly I remembered the train wreck. ’There is lots of money there,’ I said. ‘The train is laden with your own people returning home rich. Why don’t you go there before it is too late?’ The temptation was too much for them. “On another occasion I had been negotiating for a concession for hoarding advertising in the Fukien Province, where the Red element is rife. The concession was on an island and I was on my way alone to inspect it. Just as I neared the spot I was accosted by some soldiers who said they had been sent to escort me to the water’s edge, where I could get a sampan over to the island.”