THE RISING IN CHINA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 226, 22 March 1912, Page 8

THE RISING IN CHINA.

.. ROBBERS SLAUGHTER CHILDREN. MISSIONARIES MASSACRED. A vivid account of the slaughter of 10,000 Manchus at Haianfu, in the pro . vince of Shensi, of the massacre of the Swedish missionaries there, anil of the narrow escape of tho Baptist missionaries, has just been received in London from Dr. Cecil F. Robertson, one of the Baptist medical missionaries. \ Haianfu is a city five miles across. The central part has walls and gates, and ■ each of the suburbs has similar defence.: I Dr. Robertson says: | "The attack on the Manchus (which j began on a Sunday morning) l , continued \ incessantly until Wednesday morning, when the soldiers' work was practiclly finished. Their object was totally to exterminate the Manchus, man, woman and child. After Wednesday, they ceased killing the women and girls, but continued to seek out the males, "The Manchus' position was hopeless from the first. . . . The Chinese fired their homes and then killed all they could while they were escaping. Many ■ of the Manchus climbed up the city wall, and dropped down the other side, some to get maimed and killed, others to get 1 killed subsequently, others perhaps to escape. I have heard that a great many took their own lives, either by jumping down wells or by hanging themselves; 1 especially is this the case with the women. "They were now burying them in pits. The soldiers tell me that altogether up to the present they have buried 4000, but at a low estimate probably there must be 10,000 killed." The Baptists have a mission station and hospital in different parts of the city, and when the revolution %oke out Dr. Robertson was in the east suburbs. : News came of the burning of the Swedish mission, in the south suburb, and, on. the strong advice of the Chinese teachers and evangelists, it was decided to try and get the girls away in batches, some to their homes and some to the neigh--1 boring villages. It proved, however, a perilous enterprise. The Rev. Donald Smith and Mrs. Smith were in charge of one party, and ' although they escaped from the city, they were attacked by a mob some distance away. The rage of the mob was ch'iefly vented on Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who were mercilessly beaten. Mr. Smith had both his arms broken, in addition to receiving wounds on the head and leg. Mrs. Smith also suffered acutely, and, according to letters received by the Baptist Missionary Society from other missionaries, both Mr. and Mrs. Smith were left for dead on the roadside. Dr. Robertson, however, says that both are now progressing favorably. The burning of the Swedish mission and the massacre of the inmates was an outrage not on the part of the soldiers, but of robbers and other bad characters of the neighborhood. v The night was pitch dark, and when the attack was made the servants not only fled, but after escaping over the walls they removed the laddeT. By rearing a barrow against the wall Mr. Watney got on to the top, and Mr. Beckman mounted the barrow and started handing the children to him. Only Mr. Beckman's daughter, a girl 'of 12, however, had been placed on the other side when she gave a cry, and Mr. Watney leaped down to her. 'Both had to run for their lives. For six miles they were chased, and were at daybreak overtaken and done to death by having mud bricks thrown at them.\ Finding escape over the wall impracticable, Mr. Beckman, his wife, a little baby, and a girl of 7 or 8, sought safety . in an outhouse, but soon there was knocking at the door, and Mrs. Beckman dashed out with the girl. They were .never seen again; they must have been caught and killed at once. * Altogether, eight were killed; Mr. Watney, Mrs Beckman and six children.