RED RUIN IN CHINA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19947, 15 November 1926, Page 9

RED RUIN IN CHINA

CHAOTIC CONDITIONS CONTINUE. STRIKE AFFECTS STEAMER SERVICES. (Free* Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) PEKING, November 12. Red agents, operating ,at Shanghai, succeeded in causing a strike in the China Merchants’ Steamship Company’s fleet, which is the largest in Chinese waters, with the object of striking a blow at Sun Chuang Feng’s means of transportation. The reason given is the failure of the company to compensate the crew and the victims of the riverboat Kiangyung, which recently blew up at Kiukiang, killing 1200 soldiers and the crew, MISSIONARIES’ ANXIOUS TIME. ESCAPE FROM ANGRY MOB. CANTON GOVERNMENT LAW UNTO ITSELF. PEKING, November 12. (Received Nov. 14, at 5.5 p.m.) After living for several days in a native boat, with rice as the only article of food, and in constant fear of being murdered by angry mobs pursuing them along the river banks, the entire missionary staff from Liuyang, in the Hunan Province, which fled in response to entreaties by the Chinese converts, knowing the intentions of the mob to murder all foreigners, finally reached safety. The majority were scantily clad, having lost everything. The students who were responsible for the uprising, which is a protest against the Wanhsen affair, were angered when they found that the missionaries had fled. The mob then looted and burned the homes and the mission’s trading properties, including huge quantities of oil. Two lady missionaries who were captured at Changteh in October and kept in exposed condition, have not been released. The Canton Ministry of Affairs, reply ing to the Powers’ protest against the surtaxes, snubbed the diplomatic body al Peking. The Ministry returned the note of protest through the post, declaring thai Canton refused to recognise the Peking Government, and therefore could not recognise the foreign diplomats residing there. The Ministry drew attention to the spread of Cantonese influence through - out China, and virtually suggested that when the Powers recognised this fa£t Canton would be prepared to discuss the question of the surtaxes. —A. and N.Z. Cable.