DISCOMFITTED KIDNAPPERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13434, 5 November 1907, Page 3

DISCOMFITTED KIDNAPPERS.

Through Router an account h;:r> readied the Loudon preas of a singular attempt made by Bulgarian irregularis to capture, for ransom, Colonel Elliott, jßoyal Engineers, a British officer, temporarily employed by the Turkish government to reorganise the gendarmerie in the Drama diSrict of Macedonia. In. his tour along the border he put' up, with his escort-, acGvuredjik, 9. village near the scene of recent Bulgarian activity. At 7 o'clock next morning, when in a side street, . he was seized by four men in khaki uniforms. They were armed with ilannlicher carbines and bayonetis, and wore bandoli-eis, and carried bombs in email Racks attached to their belts. They tried to hurry Cdonel Elliott wards the hills, explaining that they ' intended to do him no harm, but merely tf> make the Turkish .Government ; pay ransom for him. He resisted with all his might, his jacket getting torn to piecos. When they tied a, rope, round his left arm he relaxed his effort,s, fearing that he might be,secured in such a- way as to leave no hope of escape. " His captors did not search him for arms. They" were probably in too great a hurry. While he .was being carried off parties ofsffie band were posted to fire down the streets, by way of intimidating possible .pursuers, and they afterwards formed themselves into a long line of skirmishers, to cover the withdrawal of the party in charge of the prisoner. Two gendarmes in Colonel Elliott'r> escort- started in pursuit, and soldiers from ~a blockhouse began to fire acrcGS a ravine on the retiring Bulgarians., On reaching an open meadow one Bulgarian lay down, and began to return the fire of the two gendarme's, ■ who w'ere about 70 yards off, while the other three tried to force their prisoner to lie down. At this- moment the colonel succeeded in drawing his Browning pistol, and immediately shot' through the body the three men who were struggling with him. As- they feir away lie started down the slope. A few steps down he saw tlie fourth of h:s captors, whom he supposed to be Daieff, chief of the band, taking aim at the gendarmerie sergeant, Ferhad. Daieti' swung round his rifle to bear on Colonel Elliott, who instantly shot him. Further down the • colonel saw a fifth Bulgarian, lying on the ground ' with a. 1 rifle, ahd eliot him through the head. At. this point the colonel was wounded in the thigh and •understood from the bullets splashing in the mud in- front of him that he was being fired upon from behind, but in a few more steps he gained cover, and was out of danger.