PITIABLE STORY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20453, 5 November 1934, Page 7

PITIABLE STORY.

Smuggled Chinese Beaten and Starved. “BLACK HOL3? OF CALCUTTA." United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, November 4. In an airless cellar, rivalling the Black Hole of Calcutta, Federal narcotic agents to-day found eighteen smuggled .Chinese in a pitiable physi- j cal condition after experiencing horrors almost fictional in their lurid details, j They were the survivors of band of thirty-eight struggled from Trinidad for, sale into “ laundry slavery ” for 1500 dollars each. The cellar was guarded ; by' a huge negro, who dropped two revolvers when Federal, StHUe and local police broke through steel-plated doors, after silencing five vicious dogs. Lawenforcement officials were informed that they were dealing with a desperate band, probably a remnant of the liquor-smuggling days. They carried machine-guns and tear gas. Two Chinese, able, to speak English, gave officers details. They said they had been induced to ship on a freighter with a promise to be freed for a nominal sum in New York. When three contracted illness they were thrown oft the ship by the captain, who feared they would infect the others. Thirtyfive landed off the Virginian coast, where they were herded in a house, then sewed into bags with potatoes as camouflage. They were placed in a truck, which drove on steadily for twenty-four hours until it reached New Jersey, across the river from New York. Any Chinese protesting against the treatment meted out was mercilessly beaten with clubs. Seventeen were sold into slavery before the raiders discovered their plight. The only fqpd received was a single bowl of rice, from which all ate.