ANTI-CHRISTIAN AGITATION
-Press Association-
(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.)
TALES OF TERROR. i 1 1 « I ANTI-FOREIGN OUTRAGES.
(Gable—
-Copyrignt.)
Received Sunday 5.30 p.m. SHANGHAI, March 26. Foochow reports that a serious anti-Christian agitation has been starteef by Communist students who held a meeting and urged mobs to overthrow Christianity. The students seized and bound a Chinese pastor and paraded him through the foreign quarter/ Posters appeared denouncing religion and the Church and threatening certain Chinese Chrisfians v/ith death. The authoritifes view the situation with concern, feeling that the Chinese protection is inadequate. The first batch of 140 refugees, mostly women and children from Nanking, have arrived at Shanghai. They tell of terrible experiences 'at the hands of anti-foreign mobs and Cantonese soldiers. Not till Shanghai was reached were the dangers passed. The whole way down the river they were constantly fired on • from both shores by forts and soldiers. Gunboats escorting the steamer repeatedly replied. Refugees declare that the presence of British warships alone saved them. But for them every foreigner would have been murdered. Everybody expected the retreating army to loot the city, hut it did not. As soon as the
| conquering army began to drift in a • reign of terror started. Not a single I foreign house escaped, the otecui pants being driven out, beaten and J robbed. Those residing in the out- ! er districts took refuge in the city I earlier in the day; otherwise all I would have been massacred. One group of fifty British and Americans gathered on a hillside, surrounded by howling mobs in an orgy of lootirfg, the foreigners expecting death at any moment as shots were flying about. After hours .of sus- . pense an American sailor mounted j the roof and signalled to the warships in the river. The suspense { was imihediately broke by the I scream of a shell from an American I warship Avhich exploded in front of the advancing Cantonese sold- ' iers and scattered them. This was ! the beginning of the bombardment | which enabled foreigners to reach I safety. The bombardment lasted three hours; then a party of British bluejackets arrived and took them aboard the warships. Further eya witness accounts from Nanking are fiiled with bloodthirsty details of revolting scenes ! in the worst anti-foreign outrage I since the Boxer rebellion. Soldiers | were ordered to kill every man, | woman and child irrespective of | nationality. Their actions goaded i the populace to a reckless orgy of j looting and butchery. ; Soldiers armed with swords and knives dashed ahout yelling for foreign blood. Numbers of lives were saved by the payment. of money. Outrageous demands/ ;for ransoms j were made at first, /hut when the danger threatened these. were reduced. The rings of foreigners were obtained by chopping off the fingers. The whole of the left hand of the Japanese consul was chopped off, and a worse fate met a British doctor, whose body, after he had been murdered was chopped to pieces. The markmanship of the British and American warships is highly praised. The British used shrapnel, and the Americans four inch ordinary shells. These were placed with great aqcuracy. One Chinese fort was demolished by a single shell i duying the bombardment. A few foreigners are still missing. An ultiinatum has been sent to the Chinese authorities demanding the return of all foreigners, dead as well as living. ■- * I
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NOT19270328.2.40.1
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17169, 28 March 1927, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
561ANTI-CHRISTIAN AGITATION North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17169, 28 March 1927, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Copyright undetermined – untraced rights owner. For advice on reproduction of material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.