SHOCKED BY RADIO.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20482, 7 December 1934, Page 5

SHOCKED BY RADIO.

“Devilish Tricks” Suspected in Tibet. INHABITANTS MYSTIFIED. } The peoples of Tibet are receiving shock after shock. A few months ago i they saw lamps lighted in all the !! streets of Lhasa without the use of 1 ; butter or wicks. Electrical installation had already arrived to baffle their j imagination. Now, says the London “ Daily Ex» press,” they see the erection of long poles and wire constructions through 1 which messages can be flashed thousi ands of miles. They are wondering if a Satan has taken hold of their country, and is out to wreck the privacy and seclusion in which they lived hapi pily for thousands of years. Queer Cargo. fhe Chinese Mission, which reached Lhasa at the beginning of last month, ! after a tiresome and prolonged journey, are the perpetrators of this system of i sending and receiving messages* through j the heavens. i 1 heir leader, the Chinese official, Huang Musung, originally planned to with the deputation of the Chinese government to attend the obsequies of j the late Dalai Lama. W hen he and his 300 colleagues ar- ; rived at Lhasa the inhabitants were j surprised to find a number of addi j tional ponies employed to carry loads j of a queer nature. They contained wire apparatus, pieces of iron, knobs i of brass, and numbers of other things which mystified the rustic Tibetan mind. When the mission took up their residence in the houses specially provided tor them, they set about digging holes in the ground and erecting poles, on I which to put the wire nettings. Now | they have actually built a shed under | the poles, where two men are conj stantly waiting with queer-looking j boxes attached to their ears. They

also have flat sticks on which they mutter unholy words. By this the Chinese say they can talk to Nanking, just as they would talk to the Tibetans in Lhasa. And they can hear Nanking as clearly as when they speak. The Tibetans are completely mystified by the wireless station which has been erected in their holy city. They believe that only devils can convey messages across thousands of miles. And since the Chinese are doing the same, the3 r have a fear that they are in the presence of people whose company they should shun. Since the Chinese Mission have been ] invited by the present Tibetan Government, the inhabitants are swallowing the pill without a murmur. But they are instinctively opposed to any such devilish tricks as sending messages through the ether.