A DREADFUL INFLUENCE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5106, 28 March 1927, Page 2

A DREADFUL INFLUENCE.

FILM THAT LED TO MURDER.

LIFE SENTENCES ON YOUNG BOYS,

When Douglas Fairbanks staged his famous films ’The Sign of Zorro” and “The Three Musketeers” he certainly did not expect the i'ar-r)eaching influence this would have on the younger generation of Harbin —that "it would lead to many a broken head, would cause 'the appearance of some new white crosses at the local churchyard, and would be* the means of bringing about the imposition o'f sentences of penal servitude for life on 15 to 16-year-old youngsters (contributes the Manchurian correspondent of the Morning Post).

When, as a result of the MukdenSoviet Agreement, the Soviets firmly established themselves in North Manchuria, they transplanted into its soil their Communistic organisations of youths—the Komsomol, Otmol, and Pioneers. Governed by principles ».t militant and aggressive Communism, the young disciples of Lenin began searching for. “enemies of the people.” and it fell to the lot of the Boy Scouts, those ‘‘b'uurge cubs” as called by them, to bear the first brunt of the attack.

However, the younger refugee generation, who largely remained faithful to “White” principles, were just as numerous as the young “Reds,” but, characteristically of the Russian intellectual class, lacked unity and organisation and so were unable to offer an active resistance. It was at this juncture that DAiglas Fairbanks made his appearance as Zdtro and d’Artagnan. His strong personality and the gallant deeds of his heroes were just what they needed to inflame the mind of the White youths and to unite them together. Soon after these films were screened the first young “Zorros,” members of the new “Musketeer” organisation, in Iback, bell-bottomed trousers, black silken shirts and sashes, made their first appearance on the streets o'f Harbin and confronted the Red bullies,

One evening a party of about fifty Musketeers, who were returning from some sporting event, was ambushed by a strong force of Komsomols and workmen from the Chinese Eastern Railway’s workshops. The field of battle was illuminated by the lights o'f two motor-cars, which, as it was lated discovered, belonged to the local Soviet Consulate’s garage. The first battie-i'eyal ended without severe casualties, but marked the beginning of a period of continuous and bitter fighting.

At length, when a big fight on one of the main streets took place in broad daylight, during which a number of bystanders sustained injuries from flying sfenes. and bricks, the police strictly forbade the wearing o’f all distinctive marks in public, such as red ties, black sashes, etc., and threatened severe punishment to anyone caught in the act of fighting. This order had a deterrent effect, and relegated fighting to the suburbs.

But after a lull of, several months the feud flared up again when a seventeen-year-old “White” workman, Gomeniloff, sole supporter of a family o'f six, was stabbed to death, over ten wounds being discovered on his body. The police arrested a “link” of the Komosomol, some 30 men strong, who were responsible for the assault, but two of the leaders had already been spirited away across the Soviet border.

This first assassination was followed by the knifing c,f an officer and a private belonging to the Russian troops in Chang service, who were on leave at Harbin, then by an assault on a Russian interpreter of the Chinese General Staff and his wife, who both, sustained severe injuries, and finally by the stabbing o'f and eight-year-old “White” bc.y in the back with a large penknife by a nine-year-old “Red,” because the former was not wearing a red tie on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of the Soviet Republic. The Chinese Court has now announced its decision in the “Gdnioniloff case, and has sentenced five youngsters, aged fifteen to seventeen, to penal servitude for life and one to ten years’ imprisonment.