ATROCITIES IN CHINA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19871, 15 February 1928, Page 11

ATROCITIES IN CHINA.

[RED EEIGN OF TEBBOE. UNSPEAKABLE ACTS DONE. SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS. L4N ORGY OF BLOODSHED. , 'BABIES CHOPPED TO BITS. ;Vv;» * 33y Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received February 14, 11.45 p.m.) !A". and N.Z. SHANGHAI, Feb. 14. Atrocities surpassing in horror those of ilhe Spanish Inquisition, and exceeding anything heretofore recorded in China, are recounted by a missionary corresj>ondent of the local British paper, in a despatch from Swatow. His inforraa; : on •was obtained from refugees from the afflicted districts—Haifung, Lufurig and northern Kwantun?. Communists, following on an orgy of Moodshed and massacre, have established a reign of terror so terrible that regular soldiers in several instances mutinied lather than obey the Government's orders to restore order. Eye-witnesses tell of corpses in streets T>eing eaten by mongrel dogs, of babies being chopped to pieces in front of their mothers, who were themselves executed afterwards. Women approaching childbirth were murdered in an unmentionable manner. Men's ears and strips of flesh ■were cut off, fried and eaten before the men were finally killed. Children were compelled to execute their parents. The uncle of one child who refused told him to proceed to obey the will of Heaven. The boy tried to behead his uncle but bungled the task, which was finished by the Communists. Th® youth was then executed because he had been unable to kill his uncle. Tho Communists are endeavouring to identify the whole population with the movement, and the inhabitants are thus compelled, in self-protection, to inscribe on their houses an admission of sympathy with the Communists. Where any haw refused thoy have immediately been mur dered by a variety of methods. The population has been organised in groups according to age. Boys up to the age of 20 are compelled to spy upon the movements of their parents. Men over 40 are considered useless and are classed (together with oripples, lepers, the diseased and the blind, and are being slair by hundreds. This is in accord with th<? programnie of economy to reduce tho population by one-third. The Communists' headquarters ia twit fastnesses in the mountains, where they hold huge stocks of ammunition ana machine-guns, cover points of approach. Hundreds of Roman Catholic mission protegees have escaped and arrived at Swatow, from whence they have migrated to Siam or Singapore. It is reported that two Presbyterian missionaries were killed, six chapels were burned and numerous native temples were destroyed. The inhabitants of one village who resisted the Communists were herded into a temple. This was piled high with combustibles soaked in oil and set on fire.