REMARKABLE PLUCK

Otago Witness, Issue 3898, 27 November 1928, Page 31

REMARKABLE PLUCK

MISS TOBIN’S EXPERIENCES. SEVEN WEEKS OF CAPTIVITY. SHANGHAI, November 20. The story of. a New Zealand lady’s indomitable pluck whilst kept for 44 days in captivity by a brigand gang has just been related. On September 18 Miss Watkins (an Australian) and Miss Blanche Tobin (a New Zealander), both belonging to the Church Missionary Society, while travelling to Kweilin from Wuchow on a river junk, were surprised and captured by a Chinese brigand gang and compelled at the rifle point to go to the hills. Miss \\ atkins was unable to keep pace with the others, and was allowed to return. Miss lobin and two Chinese girls were hurried forward. They repeatedly feigned fatigue, but loaded rifles were employed to overcome further reluctance. A night-long march, lighted by electric torches, brought the party to the brigand chief. Miss Tobin’s first food was. a little rice. The chief instructed the captive to write to her society demanding £3OOO later agreeing to accept £lOOO. It was then declared that Miss Tobin was a man —fact, the gang insisted on this—but later they admitted their error. For many days and nights it was continual marching, Miss Tobin occasionally sleeping on straw from sheer exhaustion. She once overheard her captors expressing fear that soldiers were near, consequently she sang, hoping that they would hear her. The chief became angry, and thrashed her with a stick, which twice broke. Then followed more marching through mountain fastnesses. The party were once in hiding four days in a cave, and afterwards in a forest, in which they spent three weeks. During the whole of her captivity Miss Tobin was only three nights under a roof.

Bishop Holden meanwhile offered himself in exchange for Miss Tobin, but the gang receiving the message refused tie exchange.

Miss Tobin was gradually losing her strength owing to lack of food and her long wanderings. Her shoes were worn out, and her feet were bare and bleeding. At . this time a letter was written to a Chinese magistrate insisting on the payment of ransom. During the negotiations the chief took Miss Tobin to a cave down a creek under a strict and heavilyarmed guard. A few days later she was instructed to proceed with the brigands towards the district where the ransom was to be paid. . This necessitated four days’ marching, the captive still showing remarkable pluck, although she was completely unfit to march, whereupon the chief, realising lhe impossibility of Miss Tobin walking further, ordered a chair, in which she was carried. • Ultimately the party reached the point whence the captive was told to proceed alone. After a short dstance soldiers approached her, informing her of her freedom and providing the means for carrying her back and restoring her to her friends. Miss Tobin is now receiving inuchneeded treatment after experiences that many men would have been unable to stand.