VIOLENCE IN CHINA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4521, 23 October 1930, Page 1

VIOLENCE IN CHINA.

PERILS OF MISSIONARIES

BOLSHEVIST PROPAGANDA

COMMON PEOPLE’S SUFFERING. S.

Tlio extent to "which the murder and kidnapping of missionaries in China has prevailed during the last six years is disclosed in a table of statistics published bv the iChinese Recorder, which is the recognised journal of the (Christian movement in China. This shows that since 1924 a total of 12 Protestant missionaries have Ibeen 'killed and 59 kidnapped, while during the same period 21 Roman Catholic priests have been killed and 39 kidnapped. The year 1927, when the Communists were very active, was a particularly bad one, but last year was as bad as any. Protestant missions had one of their ag’ents killed and 23 kidnapped, Iwhifc'the Roman 'Catholics had eight killed and six kidnapped. Owing to the greater isolation of their stations, many of the priests are exposed to increas-

ed dangers. In the opinion of the Rev. Vi . Mawson, who lived for 20 years as a missionary in Canton, the. changed attitude so noticeable in the last live or six years can be definitely attiibutted to the influence of Soviet propaganda. In the earlier days there were occasional! troubles that arose usually from local ill-feeling, gowing into rioting, but the outbreaks of the last live years have been marked by personal violence that has frequently not stopped short of murder. When the Soviet doctrine of ruthlessness is spread .among the ignorant soldiery it is not difficult to understand how it leads to such brutality. “LOOT, BUIRN, KILL.”

At the time when the Communists attempted their coup in Canton three years ago they had placarded all over the city in big lettering the words, “Loot, Burn, Kill.” For two days they literally earvied out that programme, and blood ran in the ■ streets. Fortunately, Nationalist troops came to the rescue, and the Communists were driven out. To-day, in Canton, the Chinese population retains a very wholesome fear of the Communists and their ways.

While the foreigners may he suffering from these sinister, violent hands, that is nothing to what the Chinese villagers, and especially the. property-owners, are suffering, said Mr. Mawson. The Chinese Recorder reports that “there are certain fields in which our workers itinerate where whole communities have been wiped out, where there remain nothing but ashes, where not only is there no pastor with his group of Christian followers, but where it is difficult to find among the ruins the remains of the church building- that was formerly standing. “The missionaries and the Chinese Church are only bearing a small share in the yet larger measure of suffering throughout all China to-day Rather

should our sympathies go out to the eommon people everywhere as they pass through the agonies of an inevitalhle revolution, a revolution unexampled in the annals of history in its intensity and extent TYPICAL TERRORISM. The saiiie journal contains a first-hand account of a typical reign of Communist terrorism that prevailed at Po-seh, in the Kkangsi Province, to the west of Canton, during’ the first months of the present year. On the day the local Bolshevik Government, which declared itself in lleague with Russia, was established, it circulated far and wide its doetriiie. The spirit of this (propaganda is seen in the following quotation: — “Farmers, labourers and soldiers, arise and destroy imperialism. Take hatchet and hoc and kill vou|r enemies.” They established chaos and a reign of terror, and the longer they continued in control the more tlireat- . ening they became. In some villages entire families, children included, were slaughtered. Before the Bolsheviks left they had extracted at least a million dollars from the merchants of Po-seh a--lone. This money helped to finance an army to attack Nanking,, the capital of Kwangsi. The army that brought about the defeat of the Bolsheviks was welcomed witn unrestrained enthusiasm by the people of Po-seh.