BANDITS IN TERROR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21876, 11 August 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

BANDITS IN TERROR

PIRATES BROUGHT TO BAY USE OF NAVAL AIRCRAFT BRITISH MACHINES IN ACTION RESCUE OF PIRATES' CAPTIVES Six foreign passengers and twenty Chinese passengers were kidnapped by Chinese pirates who attacked the steamer Shuntien, belonging to the China Navigation Company's fleet, owned and controlled bv Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, on Sunday night,. June 17, says the Shanghai correspondent of the New Zealand Hebald. The Shuntien left Tangku, the port of Tientsin, on. Sunday morning for Shang- / hai, via Chefoo and Weihaiwei. The pirates, numbering 42. boarded the ship Rt Tangku, disguised, in. the usual manner, as ordinary passengers. At 10.30. p.m. on Sunday night, when the vessel was in the Gulf of Childi, the pirates, working together in accordance with prearranged signals, suddenly launched their attack. All the pirates were well armed and several of them first entered the wireless room and made captive the two, operators on duty. The operators, at the point of pistols, were forced to march to the smoking saloon, where they were imprisoned. The master of the Shuntien, Captain Christiansen, hearing a disturbance, loft his cabin with the view of investigating the cause of the uproar. As he emerged from his cabin he was held up by three armed pirates and conducted to the smoking saloon. The first and second officers and the second and third engineers were simultaneously rounded up by tho pirates and all imprisoned in the smoking saloon under a heavy euard of well-armed pirates. The officers were forced to remain as prisoners from Sunday night until Monday afternoon. Third Officer Seriously Wounded At the time of the piracy tho chief and fourth engineers were in the engine room; several pirates rushed the engine room and took control; the pirates forced the two engineers to remain on duty and run the engines until nine o'clock on Monday morning. The pirates then brought down the second and third engineers from the smoking saloon as a relief. The third officer, Mr. J. P. Ross, was on duty on the bridge. He was descending from the bridge when the pirates shot him through tho shoulder and a rm. His forearm was broken and the base ot his kull was -fractured by a blow from a Mauser pistol. Ho was left Iving unconscious from Sunday night • until five o'clock on Monday morning, when the piratfes, seeing that ho was showing of life, requested Captain Christiansen to provide aid. Fortunately, a Major Moulson, of the R.A.M.C., and a Mrs. Springer, an American missionary, who had been a nurse, were aboard as passengers and they were able to render very great assistance. They put Mr. Ross' arm in splints and made him as comfortable as" possible in the captain's cabin. The third in command of the pirate gang took charge of the bridge. So sudden and unexepeeted was the attack that within half-an-hour the pirates controlled the bridge and engine room and had full command of the ship; the remainder of the gang then started to ransack tho vessel Passengers' Night of Terror

Tho foreign passenger list on the Shuntien at the time of the piracy totalled 14 and included five women and three children. The passengers had all retired for the night when they wore startled by the sounds of scuffling, the firing of shots arid the yelling of the Chinese. The pirates searched every cabin and removed the luggage. If a cabin door was locked it was forcibly broken open. Every passenger had to suffer the indignity of a very thorough personal search". Their money, .jewellery and personal belongings were all taken, [f a passenger refused to give up a ring it was forcibly removed. Mrs. Handley Derry, who was a passenger with her husband, the British Consul-General at Tsingtao, was struck on the head with the butt/of a gun by one of the pirates and sustained a slight concussion. Another passenger, Mrs.' Learmouth, saved one of her diamond rings by hiding it in her hat and also a 100-dollar note which sho hid in one of her stockings. The pirates took advantage of the occasion to get better clothes for them- / selves. They left their own rags lying on the deck and dressed themselves in clothing taken from the passengers. Tho ship's armoury, consisting of eight revolvers;' three Winchesters and a sporting gun, was taken by the pirates. They did not, however, interfere with the ship's cargo. Purser's Startling Experience

The ship's purser was not disturbed by the piracy and slept all through tho outrage; his cabin was near the saloon and apparently was overlooked by tho pirates. He awoke about six o'clock on the Monday morning and, after getting dressed, went up on deck. He noticed that there was nobody in the saloon and did not see anyone around untiil ho saw a Chinese with a pistol tucked in his belt, whom he did not recogniso as a saloon passenger, on the saloon deck. The purser, who speaks Chinese fluently, went up to tho man and told him that he was not allowed to carry a gun on board ship and if tho man handed it over ho would bo given a receipt and the pistol returned to him at the end of tho voyage. Tho man was very pleasant and chatted with the purser for/ about five-minutes. Suddenly ho felt two pistols thrust in tho small of his back, other pirates having crept up .ton him. It was only then that ho realised that tho ship had been pirated, and he was forced to march to the smoking saloon and join the othor officers. In the meantime the pirate chief in charge of the bridge, who was evidently an experienced seaman, navigated tho Shuntien toward the mouth of the Yellow River, where somo five Chinese junks were lying at anchor. It was about five o'clock on Monday afternoon when the Shuntien was brought alongside these junks and went aground on a soft bottom. The pirates commandeered tho junks and made preparations to leave the Shuntien with their loot. Selection ol Hostages

The pirates just before leaving declared their intention of taking as hostages four foreign passengers and two of the ship's officers. The captain suggested that they should draw lots for their " guests," but they refused and selected from among the passengers Mr. G D. Nicholl, manager in Shanghai of the Manufacturers' Lifo Insurance Company, two British submarine officers who were on their way

to join their vessels at Weihaiwei, and a Japanese, Mr. Yamamoto. From the ) officers of the ship they selected the second officer and third engineer. The pirates at first selected the chief officer to be taken as a hostage, but the captain protested that ,ho needed him to assist in the navigating of the ship; the pirates gave way and took the second officer instead. In addition,

they took as hostages twenty Chinese passengers, one of whom was a Mr. Shell Tien-lin, who was Minister of the Interior under Marshal Wu Pei-fu in the old Poking Administration. Iho pirates forced their unwilling captive* to board the Chinese junks, A\hicn sailed up the Yellow River and disappeared from night. The Shuntien was left aground on a soft bottom; with the riso of the tide tho vessel was refloated. I ortunatoly, the pirates did littlo material damage to tho ship, not even destroying tho wireless equipment. The operators commenced sending out messages of distress as soon as the pirates made their escape. The signals wore answered by tho destroyers H.M.S. Witch and Veteran; the American destroyer Popo and the tender Bittern also loft Chefoo for the scene of the outrage.

Tho Shuntien, escorted by the Witch, arrived at Chefoo early on Tuesday morning.and the third officer, Mr. Ross, was removed to the American Civil Hospital. Considering the serious nature of his wounds, Mr. Ross, at the time of writing, is progressing satisfactorily. The Veteran cruised around tho area of tho piracy oif the mouth of the Yellow River, and H.M.S. Eagle, aircraft carrier, left Weihaiwei for tho same locality.

Strong diplomatic representations concerning tho piracy have been made by both tho British and Japanese Legations to the Chinese at Nanking. In response to urgent wires from tho Chinese High Commissioner m Weihaiwei, General Han Fu Chi sent a detachment of troops to the Linching District, thirty miles inland from the mouth of the Yellow River, where the pirates' lair is reported to be located. Owing to the mountainous nature of tho country, tho task of throwing a cordon around the pirates may be a little slow. Tho British aircraft carrier Eagle, from Weihaiwei, arrived off the mouth of the Yellow River on Tuesday afternoon and flights were commenced immediately by a qumber of seaplanes over tho district to which the pirates had escaped with their victims. Tho flights continued on Wednesday, when a group of junks were discovered lying about ten miles west of the mouth of

the Yellow River.- The seaplanes im- . mediately swooped down and encircled tho junks, the occupants of which o]>ened fire on the machines. Ihe seaplanes returned the fire with their machine guns, inflicting several casualties among the pirates. One of the machines was struck on the wing by a bullet. Following this ,attack from the junk a bomb was dropped bv the seaplane in the vicinity of the pirates. At about the same time that the shooting started a sampan was seen to leave one of the junks. One or tho machines, swooped down and discovered that the 'sampan was occupied by Mr. Nicholl, the insurance manager, and Mr. Shen Tien-lin. The seaplane made an excellent landing, removed the two captives from the sampan and put thpm aboard the Eagle. Mr. Nicholl had a letter from the Chinese pirates to the British consul at Tsinan, requesting tho consul to obtain from the Chinese Government a guarantee that no military acti<?n would be taken against the pirates. Failing written assurance to this effect the remaining four Britishers, it was stated, would bo shot. More bombs were dropped by the seaplanes as well as a float containing an ultimatum, written in Chinese, which gav6 the pirates until six p.m. to surrender the other captives, otherwise an intensive fiio would bo opened on them. Apparently tho morale of the pirates was broken by the relentless pursuit by the seaplanes. A white flag was exhibited by one of tho junks, and at

seven p.m. a junk with the four remaining British captives left the pirates' lair for the open sea. At midnight the Eagle was sighted and ° the captives wero transferred to safety. Ali the five British captives and the one Chineso finally arrived at Weihaiwei early on Friday morning. The Japanese captive, Mr Yamamoto, was also released by the pirates and finally arrived at Tientsin on the Saturday morning. This closed the incident so far as the foreign captives are concerned. Apart from all the hazards and sensations of hunger and threatened torture, they are none the worse for their trying experience. The Chinese captives are still in the hands of the pirates. The Chinese Government troops are gradually surrounding | the pirates and the release of their i victims may be early expected.