Mr. Hondelink Now in Shanghai:
His Views on the Outrage:
"Extortion"
Mr. E. R. Hondelink, engineer-in-chief of the eastern section of the 7 is at present in few days a representa tive of the "North-China Daily News" views on the unfortunate incident in which he was involved at Hsuchoufu three weeks ago. Mr. Hondelink's experiences, it may be remembered, were detailed by a correspondent at Haichow in these columns on September 16. When the engineer was about to leave Hsuchoufu, a contractor who was dissatisfied with the terms of contract attempted to prevent Mr Hondelink from boarding the Blue Express by throwing himself on the ails in front of the engineer's hand cart. The man was only removed after a scuffle, whereupon his wife in turn threw herself before the car and feigned death. This was responsible for a loud outery by the loafers, military people and railway police on the scene, and the crowd, after attempting to molest a party of friends who had come to see Mr Hondelink off, compelled the railway officials to insist upon Mr Hondelink. returning to his home, where he was kept virtually a prisoner for five days, 'Two main points stand ron ith this sentative. "The first isthe et jor iF repre down' we have received at the hands of the Chinese authorities. Wher the trouble started at the end of May every official in the railway service received intimation from the Board of Communications at Peking that they would stand by us and protect us if we continued with our duties. Yet when this dispute with contractor develops into an ugly row, neither the railway police oF the military officials lift a finger on our behalf. Indeed they side with the rabble.
"The second point of consequence," continued Mr Hondelink, "Louches lon extraterritorial rights, This affair was an internal one, simply a dis-jute between a Chinese and myself, 3 representative of the railway. Yet soldiers come along, make me leave the train and practically confined me to my house for five days. What happened was that the money demanded by the contractor thad to be paid. It was a squeeze, probably worked in collaboration with the military. They got $1,500 to which they were not entitied.
"The whole affair," concluded Mr' Hondelink, "happened suddenly, and we were all surprised at the attitude of the soldiers, for, norm lly, the Fengtien troops are well Gisciplined. Maybe these around the T.P.R. station were local re-emits, and were friends of the contractor.
Mr. Hondelink, who is of Dutch birth, stated that he had lodged a formal protest with the Minister for the Netherlands at Peking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.