ANZAC RESCUE

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18778, 28 October 1932, Page 9

ANZAC RESCUE

GIRL SAVED FROM DEGRADATION. DRAMA NEAR CANTON. Details of the rescue of an Australian girl from a life of domestic, slavery in Canton were given by the Rev. L. N. Watkins, a New Zealander,, who returned to Wellington in the Zealandia after three and a half years in China. The case roused much attention in Australia last August, when news of the rescue was received. The girl was 20 years of age and oame from Townsville, Queensland, Mr Watkins said. She married a Chinese and journeyed with him to China, where, apparently, she expected to find a comfortable, semi-Euro-pean home. Instead, the young wife was taken to the Shekki district of the Canton delta, north of Macao, a Portuguese possession. She was obliged to live in a Chinese house and eat Chinese food. She discovered that her husband had a Chinese wife. Repeatedly beaten and forced to work in the fields with coolie women, the girl became desperate, and.wrote to an Australian member of the HongKong Volunteer Defence Force, an Anzao unit with which Mr Watkins was associated. Without delay the Anzacs made plans for her rescue. Twenty armed men, including several New Zealanders, Journeyed by boat to Macao, proceeded to the Canton delta, and removed the girl from the Chinese family by force. While she was being escorted to HongKong the majority of the party waited at Macao as a covering force, but trouble was avoided and all returned 6afely. “The rescue was carried out with the cognisance of (he Hong-Kong authorities, who, however, withheld their support in case of international complications," said Mr Watkins. “The Defence Force and the Salvation Army combined In raising funds to assist the girl, who was returned to Townsville.”