The Cordova daily times., 1923-01-26
Foreigners Kidnapped,
 Property Looted, FZout
 Authority, Chink Bandits

this past spring and partly because of the execution of Pao Teh-chuan by ex- Tuchun Feng Yuhsiang. They have committed outrages in various parts of the province, and although detach- ments of troops have been sent against them it has been impossible up to the present to suppress them entirely, owing to their numbers and their wide distribution. Through the Kidnapping of foreigners by the tufei this local problem has now become diplomatic question, One deplorable feature of the affair is that a large portion of the general public seems to be disposed to believe all rumors circu' lated instead of ascertaining, facts. , The uneasiness of the public has been increased by exaggerated accounts of tufei doings given in the Chinese press, and while these exaggerated ac' counts have not helped in any way toward removing the tufei menace they have increased the Governments diplomatic difficulties. For this req son it is important that real facts be made public.
 Exact Number of Foreigners
 Taken in Shensi: One French and one Greek engineer.
 Taken in Juchow: One American and one Swedish missionary.
 Taken in Shangtsai: One British missionary and one Swedish lady mis sionary
 Taken in Yingchow: One Italian missionary.
 "The above missionaries were all captured about the time that the 1 Honan bandits fled (before Feng's troops) from Eastern Honan into An hui
 Taken from Hsihsien: Two Ameri can missionaries, father and son.
 Altogether, therefore, there have been nine persons in the hands of the bandits representing six nationa1ities The report that 13 foreigners were taken by the tufei and that among them were several Japanese is untrue "The Bandits Object in seIzinp l Foreigners
 About three months ago the Honan i. bandit leaders, Lao Yangjen and others, sent representatives to Gen eral Wu Pei-fu requesting that they and their men be taken over by him and be organized into units of the regular army. General Wu was un. able to accede to their request, be- 1 cause the Government Is already pledged to reduce the army and tighten the burden of the people. Per. sonally, also, he did not feel that he could enlist bandits and recognize them as part of his army without inflicting great hardships on the peo- pie wherever they were stationed, be- cause they would be uncomfortable. Therefore, instead of agreeing, he or dered the bandits to surrender their arms on condition that they be sent back to their native districts at the Governments expense. The tufei lead CTS, realizing it was impossible then to exact any concessions from Gen. eral Wu, decided upon Kidnapping for eigners as a device for forcing the Government to take cognizance of their demands. This probably ex- plains sufficiently why among the for eigners taken as many as six nation alities are represented. The fact that a protest has been lodged with the Government by the diplomatic body now appears to be considered by the the bandit leaders as a part of their objective already realized.
 "ProbabIe Results of Diplomatic
 Action
 Some time ago the British, Amer ican, French, Italian and Swedish min
 
 verbally asked Foreign Minister Roo to explain to them why it was not yet possible to secure the release of their nationals who had been taken by the Honan bandits. Replying to them, MT Koo quoted a telegram which he had received from General Wu Pei-fu, but this was not considered satisfac- tory by the foreign ministers. There fore, on the 18th instant, these same ministers lodged a formal protest with the Waichiaopu, which protest em bodied two request: CD That imme- diate steps be taken to effect the re- lease of the kidnapped foreigners and to escort them to their places of resi- dence without danger to their per