OCR Text |
Show SPEEDY RELEASE OF GAPTIVESDEMANDED FIVE MINISTERS PRESENT JOINT NOTE Or POWERS TO PE KIN GOVERNMENT Demand is Couched In Vigorous language; lang-uage; Declares Missionaries Working Under treaty which Has Bean Violated Pekin Measures for the immediate release of the foreign missionaries kidnapped kid-napped by Chinese bandits were demanded de-manded of the Pekin government by the American, British, Italian, French and Swedish ministers, who acted under un-der instructions of their governments. The five ministers, presenting a joint note, culled in person and in-! in-! formed executives of the Chines re-! re-! public that the continued retention of the missionaries in captivity would not be tolerated by the powers. The powers, it was said, would be compelled com-pelled to act drastically unless the missionaries were released and guarantees guar-antees jrlven for the future safety of the hundreds of other missionaries in China. The note was couched in vigorous language. It declared that the missionaries mis-sionaries were carrying on their work in the interior of China under treaties treat-ies which had been violated by the abductions. It is understood that YVashinton instructed in-structed Jacob Gould Schurman, the American minister, to impress upon China the seriousness of the bandits activities in detaining foreigners for politcal motives. Dr. Schurman protested pro-tested only in 'behalf of the two American Amer-ican captives, but joined the other ministers min-isters in a general complaint against i interference with the treaty rights of missionaries. Besides the Americans, the captives now include one Greek, one French citizen, cit-izen, one British subject, one Swedish and one Italian. The French minister minis-ter represented th missing Greek. The Italian hostage was identified as Father Grimaldi, who was captured in Anhewei province, and taken into Hon-an Hon-an province, where about 10,000 outlaws out-laws have been holding a large area. The others all are detained in Roman. The bandits have seized the various nationals with a view of forcing the Pekin government to incorporate the bandits in the regular Chinese army. Most of the brigands are dismissed soldiers who want reinstatement. |