MISSIONARIES ABDUCTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 848, 17 December 1929, Page 9

MISSIONARIES ABDUCTED

HEAVY RANSOM SOUGHT BY CHINESE ARMY IN FULL RETREAT United P.A.—IIy Telegraph—Copyright Reed. 10 a.m. SHANGHAI, Monday. Reliable reports from Canton show that the news of the Cantonese victory was not exaggerated. The invaders are still retreating helterskelter. A gang of Communists invaded Tayeh, a town 50 miles south-east of Hankow, and abducted the Rev. H. Sandv and the Rev. E. Liyesey, Methodist missionaries. They are holding them for heavy ransom. It is a strange fact that the town was not looted. Chances of a repetition of the 1927 incidents occurring at Shanghai appear to be negligible. The latest stock-taking of the situation reveals that the prompt measures which were takeiigby the Chinese military authorities prevented the Communistic outbreaks from assuming serious proportions.

REBELS DEFEATED

MAIN SITUATION QUIET ADEQUATE PROTECTION The Foreign Secretary, the Rt. Hon. A. Henderson, stated that so far as his information went the forces opposed to the Nanking Government in China had been defeated, near Canton, and had made no further progress on any of the other main lines of attack. The situation at Nanking and Shanghai appeared to be quiet. The naval forces available for the protection of British nationals, in case of danger, were five cruisers, one aircraft-carrier, eight destroyers, five sloops and 18 gunboats. The available military forces consisted of three battalions at Hong-Kong, two in Shanghai, and two at Tientsin, with a small detachment at Peking and Weihaiwei. Other foreign Powers had an aggregate naval strength in Chinese waters which was approximately the same, and about 8,000 troops, mainly at Tientsin and Shanghai.