INDIAN LEADER MISSING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20402, 2 November 1929, Page 14

INDIAN LEADER MISSING.

PERILOUS SEARCH MADE,

NEWS SENT TO DOMINION.

Much anxiety is being felt among his friends in India for the safety of Sadhu Sundar Singh, the well-known Indian mystio and Christian leader, a visit .from whom has been anticipated in New Zealand for, some time past. Last April the Sadhu left the Punjab on. one of his pilgrimages he was accustomed to make to Tibet. When by the end of July he bad not returned and 110 word had been received of him, grave fears for his safety began to be entertained. . One of those most closely associated with tho Sadhu has been the Rev. T. E. Riddle, of the Now Zealand Presbyterian Mission in tho Punjab, and he deemed it his duty to make an excursion into Tibet to see if he could gather any news. Word has now been received here that Mr. Riddle's hazardous journey was fruitless, and ho has returned to report- that "anything may have happened" to the Sadhu. ... Mr. Riddle, who was accompanied by Dr. Taylor, of the Reformed Presby; terian Mission, followed a trade rout<) among wild mountains along narrow cliff tracks. At one point near the top of tho Hoti Pass tho surefooted ponies had to be helped to .hang on to a slippery 12in. road across, a slip abovo a/ilQOft. drop by one man holding on to the bridle and one on to the tail. Dr. Taylor suffered from snow blindness, and as the altitude of the pass was 18,000 ft. Mr. Riddle had pains in his head and lungs from the rarefied air as well as from the bitter wind. On the way back dangerous rock faces, measuring thousands of feet, had to be negotiated ind bridges improvised over mountain torrents which had swept the permanent bridges away. , "We found no traces of Sadhu Sundar Singh having passed through the villages on the frontier," writes Mr. Riddle. "Hence we are not without fear that he may have been one of the many unnamed Sadhus whoso passing has been in the night and whose body at morning light has been committed to the salva-tion-giving waters of Mother Ganges. In May and .Tune, when ho was passing up the pilgrim line, cholera was so anything may have happened.