Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-05-20
DEATH DRAWS NEAR.
FOR CAPTVES HELD.
BY CHINESE BANDITS
Americans and British Pris.
oners Face Firing Squad
If Negotiations Fail.
HAVE SUFFERED AGONY
IN LAIR OF BRIGANDS
U. S. Envoy Demands Picking
Government Act at Once or
Face Consequences.
By the Associated Press.

Face Consequences.
Bv the Associated Press
PEKING, May 19.-Fifteen for
eigners, six of them Americans, some
of them i'll, all of them weary,
bruised and footsore, poorly fed and
worse clad, tonight are looking death
in the face in the Paotzuku hills of
Shantung province, as they approach
the end of their second week as
captives of the bandits who raided
the Shanghai Picking express near
Suchow, May 6.
If the foreign and Chinese gov
ernments are unable to satisfy the
brigands by Tuesday that their terms
for the release of the prisoners will
be met, and the robbers chieftain
makes good his threat, two CT the
Americans land two Britishers have
little more than rty-eight hours to
live.
They will be shot warning
that the marauders mean to force
compliance with their demands un-
der their chiefs ultimatum sent out
, Saturday.
I'VE are pleading for our lives"
and unless Picking, Washington and
London realize that the bandits are
ready to sacrifice their own lives and
those of all their captives in their
fight for reinstatement in the Chi
nese government, immune from pun
ishmcut, I'VE arc surely doomed" is
the statement made by Leon Fried
man, one of the Americans, speaking
for all.
Plan Mass Meeting.
Fricdmans message, sent to his
brother in Shanghai, has stirred the
foreign communities of China. In
Shanghai tomorrow a mass meeting
will be held TO pass resolutioaa4de-
manding that American and British
governments guarantee the promise
of the Chinese government to the out
laws and win the freedom of their
imprisoned nationals.
The shadow of death has descended
prison corrals in the Paotzuku hills.
Two of the Chinese prisoners were
thrown from the cliffs because their
promised ransoms had not been paid.
and five others were shot in cold
blood for failure to obey orders.
a.. one man, Marcel o. Berube,
Frenchman of Shanghai. yesterday
was given his freedom with instruc-
lions from Wang. the bespectacled,
scholarly young bandit leader, to go
TO Picking and lay before the Chinese
government and the foreign diplo-
matte corps the desperate plight of
the fifteen others.
Berube. tomorrow, will tell his
story and present the uItimatum of
the outlaws to the diplomats. includ-
!. ing DR.. Jacob Gould Schurman,'
American minister. who has returned
to the capital from Shanghai and the
bandit zone.
Two Factions In Case.
Two factors apparently have clogged
negotiations for the release of the
captives. One is the pickering be-
tween Chinese officials at Tsaoch-
wang, who have poured in there by
tho carload to treat for the prisoners
release. The other is the bandits de-
mand. repeated again and again, that
because they cannot trust the prom
ises of the Chinese government.
guarantee that their terms will be
met must be given from some re-
sponsible source. Opposed to this lat
ter position is the stand of the for
eigu diplomats that the Chinese gov
eminent is held responsible for the
safety of the prisoners and it must
obtain their freedom. And Friedman
says, and Berude says, that unless
the captives are released soon they
arc doomed.
Action Demanded.
The diplomatic corps, headed by
it's dean, ]. B. De Freitas, the Por-
tuguese minister, twice has called on
the Chinese government to speed up
negotiations for release of the fifteen
foreigners held In the temple prisons
OF Paotzuku. The last time repre-
sensations were made the government
was informed the ministers were
awaiting with Impotence" action
by the Picking regime.
On his way from Shanghai to
Picking, American Minister Schurman
SIOppeu OIL lSdoCH"dHS lOnS
enough to tell the Chinese officials
there to get results and get them
quickly, or drastic action" would
be taken.
Get the prisoners out and talk
terms afterward." was the keynote of
DR.. Schurman's demand.
Still the negotiations alternately
progress and lag. The Chinese off,
Gals at Tsaochwang, comfortable in
the twenty-four sleeping cars, park
cd on the railway sidings, argue
among themselves as to how this or
that shall be done TO free the fifteen
who are sleeping on the bare ground
in the Shantung mountains. clad in
thin rags and tatters, underfed and
come of them in urgent need of medi-
cal and hospital care. And so the
situation stands tonight, after four
teen days have dragged along, since
the train raid near Suchow. Four
teen men and one woman, a little
Mexican sonora, wife of Manuel A.
verea, one of the prisoners, who re-
fuses to leave her husbands side, are
waiting, they hope, for freedom.