ATTACKED BY CHINESE COOLIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 146, 9 March 1918, Page 8

ATTACKED BY CHINESE COOLIES

D OVERSEER SAVAGELY MALTREATED. An outrage of a serious nature was perpetrated at Aleisa, Samoa, on February 3, when Edward L. Grey, an overseer of the TJpolu Rubber and Cacao Estates, Ltd., was the victim of a savage attack by a gang of Chinese coolies working on the plantation. The coolies, using knives and other weapons, inflicted such grave injuries that the man was conveyed in an unconscious state to the hospital at Mptootua. It is alleged that for some time past there had been trouble with the Chinese. On the morning of the occurrence; Grey loft his house accompanied by his wife, intending to drive into Apia. Half an hour later, at A point on the road by some dense bush, a number of coolies suddenly appeared and took up a position in the centre of tho roadway. They were armed with sticks and plantation knives, and one of them carried a hammer. When Grey descended from the taavale ho was at once surrounded and set upon, slashed with the knives, and beaten into insensibility. His assailants then ran away. A Nino boy who was driving the trap lifted Grey into the vehicle, and he was conveyed to the residence of Mr. M. Grapengiesser, where first aid was rendered. Meanwhile the Niuc boy was dispatched into Apia for assistance. Upon tho boy's arrival a motor-car was promptly sent, in which the injured man was taken to hospital. The police were also notified, and Captain Cotton, the Provost Marshal, with several of his men, hurried to the scene of the outrage. Several arrests were made before nightfall. The accused ■ will bo charged in dw course..