OUTRAGES ON CHRISTIANS IN CHINA. Preachers and Converts Flogged and Their Houses Pillaged.—Churches Destroyed.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 84, 10 January 1885, Page 4

OUTRAGES ON CHRISTIANS IN CHINA. Preachers and Converts Flogged and Their Houses Pillaged.— Churches Destroyed.

Hong Kong, October 14.— Chinese mobs have been committing fearful outrages on persons anil places of Christian worship in Canton and interior points. In the provinces of Kwang - Tung alone four Roman Catholic and five Protestant churches have been destroyed, 120 houses of resident Christians looted, and their occupants driven away. In Nam-hoi three Catholic chapels were pillaged, as were also the houses of converts. The priests and the converts were beaten and the women outraged. In Shi-hung the Church of England chapel was destroyed. The Chinese tore the clothing from the preacher's wife and treated her shamefully. In the Chang-sung the Wesleyan chapel was destroyed. Christians are fleeing from the province to Hong Kong. The Chinese gave them the alternative of sacrificing to the idols or leaving their homes. They preferred the latter, but while leaving many of the women were caught and outraged. The authorities of twelve Cantonese villages have issued notices that all Christians must leave. Fifteen churches in those villages have already been, destroyed, and several stores looted, Many persons are homeless. la Kite- Yung a mob destroyed all the Roman Catholic and English churches. In Swatow the Catholic priests were ordered to leave, and, after they had left, Chinese soldiers broke into the houses and ravished the female converts. Although the attention of the Chinese Government has been called to these barbarous acts, no action has been taken to prevent them or punish the perpetrators.