ABDUCTION OF AN ENGLISH GIRL BY KURDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8670, 12 September 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

ABDUCTION OF AN ENGLISH GIRL BY KURDS.

! STORY OF MISS FIELD'S IMPRISONMENT. The Daily News correspondent at Tanris (better known, perhaps as Tabreez) sends full details of the abduction of an English young lady by a Kurd. The scene of the abduction was Hajiabiul, a large village on tho Jaghatu. Mrs. 11. Isaac Greenfield has, since the death of her husband, been mostly living with her children in that village. In the beginning of May last, on a fine evening, Miss Katy Greenfield, a girl fourteen years old, was induced by her servant, an old Kurdish woman, to go for a walk. Whilst walking she was suddenly seized and carried away by a horseman of tho name of Aziz, who had been lying in ambush with • three other Kurds. When Mrs. H. Greenfield was informed of the occurrence she at once mounted a horse, and, followed by 0110 of her servants, pur- j sued the abductors, but, night coming on, j she lost traces of them. i

The Ameer Nixam, Governor-General of Azerbaijan, being applied to by tho acting British Consul-General, telegraphed to So-uj-bulak for tho restoration of the young lady. Tho acting Governor of the latter place answered that it was out of his power to restore'the girl, because, as he pre-' tended, she had been carried across tho frontier to the village of Tevila in Turkey. More stringent orders were sent to So-nj-bulak, and Miss Greenfield was then brought to that town and confided to the care of; Molla Abdu la, a Kurdish Mufti. Next day a mock inquiry was held, in which none bat Mussulmans took part. It is said that instead of Miss Katy, a Kurdish girl wrapped up in black and tightly veiled, as the Mahomedan custom is in Persia, was introduced. The girl declared to tho assembly that she was Mahomedan, and desired to live and die in that religion. The result of the inquiry was then telegraphed to tho Governor-General at Tabreez. The acting British Consul-General was not. satisfied with this ; he insisted on the girl being brought to Tabreez and interrogated in his presence. New orders to that effect were sent to So-uj-bulak. When it was known there that the young lady would be taken to . Tabreez, a party composed of the beggarly and lowest class of Turkish subjects proceeded to the house of Mollu Abdulla, drew out Miss Greenfield, and forcibly carried her to the Turkish Consulate. Tho honorary Consul ordered the door of the Consulate to bo shut against them, and then from the terrace advised them to carry and remit the girl to the local authorities. To this the rioters answered by smashing the door of the Consulate, and, leading Miss Greenfield to the terrace where stands the mast of the Consulate's Hag, they made her sit at the base of the mast. Then tuinultuously, with threats and abuse, they demanded the Consul to hoist; tho flag. This they did under tho idea that the Persian Government would refrain from taking tho girl from the protection of the Turkish Hag, as such an act would constitute an insult to that power. The Turkish Consul, getting out of the hands of the rioters, sought safety in flight.

The rioters pitched a tent on the terrace, and made Miss Greenfield live in it. As an additional precaution, several Kurdish women were lodged with her. These matrons did not cease to inculcate on her mind the principles of Islamion. To give effect to their teachings, they did not neglect to threaten her with instant death the moment she dared to profess Christianity. Not content with this, the)' compelled her to write and sign different letters in which she is made to declare that she lias been a Mahomedan for two years, that she has been fasting during the sacred month of Kamazan, and that she lias not by compulsion, but by her own volition, followed Aziz, the man chosen by her to be her husband ; and that, if forced to go to Tabreez, she would put an end to her life. The rioters, after lodging Miss Greenfield in the Consulate, sent word to the Kurds in Turkey inviting them to como and defend Islamism : because, as they pretended, the English Consul wanted to take to Tebreez and forcibly convert to Christianity a girl who had become a true believer. Many of the Turkish Kurds, answering the call of the rioters, began to arrive, all armed, at So uj-bulak, and joined the insurgents. The local authorities, seeing the turn which the affair was taking, declared themselves unable to take Miss Greenfield out of the hands of the Turkish Kurds without using force and shedding much blood. The Persian Government then proposed to the British Legation to send Mr. Pafcon to So-uj-bulak and there question the girl as to her choice of religion. Mr. Paton consented to go, his safety being guaranteed, the inquiry to be held in the Government House, and the girl to be delivered up in case she adhered to her original religion. However, on his arrival, together with the Turkish Consul-General, Mr. Paton was told that the question being simply a religious one and not a political, neither he, the Consul-General, nor the Ottoman Ambassador at Teheran had anything to do with it. Tho Kurds liivo since walled up the entrance to Miss Greenfield's dwelling, and food is carried to her by means of a wooden staircase. They have surrounded the building with armed men, whose number is variously stated at 100, 100, and up to '200, and they strictly prevent all communication with her. They have, moreover, taken a binding oath to shoot any person who may attempt to see her.