CHINESE TOWN LOOTED

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21417, 8 March 1935, Page 11

CHINESE TOWN LOOTED

j MANY KILLED BY I COMMUNISTS DKA'IH OF MISSIONARY j ( ONKIRMEI) ! SHANGHAI, March (>. j A telegraphic message f'runi : Siani'u confirms the death of Mr ] Frencham, a missionary, but disI closes nothing of the fate of his wife, though local missionary circles are convinced that she shared the same fate as her husband. j Messages state that Ningkiang j was taken completely by surprise j during the height of the Chinese I New Year celebrations, when disj guised communists were enabled to ; enter the walled city. Later they ; overpowered the guards and i opened the gates, allowing the rest lof their force to enter. The com- 1 ; munists then started an orgy of | killing and looting, indiscriminately I • butchering all except the poorest j j inhabitants. Having previously! j dug a huge pit the communists i 1 tossed the bodies of dead and dying \ \ persons inside. Many were buried j alive. j Mr Frencham and his wife were j I the only two foreigners in the city i >■ during the attack. Strangely contradictory reports concerning the | fate of the missionaries, Mr Hay- ! man (New Zealand) and M. Bosshardt (Switzerland), have been received. Reports reaching Changsha state that a Chinese mission worker saw 10 bodies near Tayung on December 30, including those of two foreigners, and M. Bosshardt and Mr Hayman are the only two foreigners known to be in that area. Hankow messages deny these killings, claiming that the bodies of the two foreigners were probably those of two captured Catholic priests whose murder was recently i confirmed from other sources.