COMMUNIST ORGY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 117, 15 February 1928, Page 11

COMMUNIST ORGY

TERRIBLE STORY OF MASSACRE IN CHINA CHILDREN COMPELLED TO EXECUTE PARENTS REDUCING POPULATION BY ONE-THIRD BY TBLEGEArH.--PIIESS ASSOCIATION Copyright. (Rec. February 14, 11.5 p.m.) Shanghai, February 14. Atrocities surpassing in horror the bloody period of the Spanish Inquisition and exceeding anything heretofore recorded in China are recounted by the missionary correspondent of a local British, paper in a dispatch from’ Swatow. • The information -was obtained from refugees from the afflicted districts of Haifung, Lufung, and Northern Kwangtung, where Communists, following on an orgy of bloodshed and massacre, established a reign of terror so terrible that regular soldiers in several instances mutinied rather than obey the Government’s orders to restore order. Eye-witnesses tell of disembowelled corpses in the streets being eaten by mongrel dogs, of babies chopped to 1 pieces in front of their mothers, who; themselves were executed afterwards. Women approaching childbirth were murdered in an unmentionable manner. Men’s ears tand strips of flesh were cut off, fried and eaten’before the men were finally killed. Children were compelled to execute their parents. The uncle of one who refused told him to proceed and obey the.will of Heaven. The boy tried to behead his uncle, but bungled the jo’s, which was finished -by the Communists, and the- youth then executed because he was unable to kill his uncle. The Communists are endeavouring to identify the. Whole of.the population with the movement and inhabitants thus are compelled in 'self-protection to inscribe on their houses, ait-admission of s'ym-. pathy with the Communists. Where any refused they were immediately murdered by a variety of methods: The population was organised in groups according to age. Boys up to 20 years were compelled to spy. upon the movements of ..their parents. Those over forty are considered to. be useless, and are classed together:.-' with cripples, lepers,, diseased, and- blind, and were slain -by hundreds, according to the programme . .of economy,, to reduce the population by one-third.

The Communists’ headquarters are in two fastnesses' in the mountains, where they hold huge stocks of ammunition and machine-guns, and cover points of approach. Hundreds of Roman Catholic mission'proteges escaped and arrived at Swatow, when they migrated .to Siam and Singapore. It. is reported that two Presbyterian missionaries were killed and six chapels burned, and that numerous native temples were destroyed. The inhabitants of one village who . resisted the Communists were-herded into,a temple, piled high with combustibles: soaked in oil, and set on fire. ■

PIRATES ATTACK JAPANESE "..VESSEL ; (Rec. February. 14, 8.25 p.m.) Shanghai, February 13. The Japanese’'’-'lsteamer' Hirao Maru answered, the signals and-awaited the approach of a vessel vJli.Vh subsequently proved .to be a pirate ship. The latter was,identified as the Kaitsu Ma’ru, recently'seized from a Japanese' shipping company. The crew of the Kaitsu poured a fusillade of rifle'shots on the Hirao. Maru, killing two sailors. The Hirao then went full steam for Tsingtao and outdistanced the pirate ship. ,1 Japanese destroyer later discovered the pirate, which took refuge in a bay., where the depth of water prevented the destroyer approaching. The ships exchanged shots. The pirates refused to surrender, but threaten to kill'six Japanese sailors held as hostages in the event of an attempt to send a boarding party from the destroyer.

COLDSTREAM GUARDS GOING HOME .’ ' (Rec. February. 14, 8.25 p.m.) \ ’ Shanghai, February 13. The Second Battalion of the Coldstream Guards is proceeding Home tomorrow.,on- the conclusion of ten months’, duty safeguarding British interests here during the most critical period of the, Cantonese invasion. The citizens are planning an elaborate send-off. •