CHINA: Kill Them! Kill Them!

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The trial took place in Canton, in a hall named for Sun Yatsen, who learned his Christianity from missionaries. Five Canadian nuns, after nearly nine months in Red China's jails, stood up before a howling mob of 6,000. The "people's court" heard the charges against them: "Neglect, inhuman treatment and murder" of more than 2,000 orphans. One witness, an eleven-year-old girl, shrilly testified that she had been locked up with other youngsters in a room infested with hungry rats that ate at the children's flesh. The sisters, all from the Holy Child orphanage, which for 42 years had given succor and shelter to abandoned Chinese children, were denounced by the Red judge as "vicious imperialists."

"Kill them! Kill them! Kill their families, too!" screamed the listening mob. When it surged forward, the judge shouted: "No! No! Don't beat them yet." Two of the nuns were sentenced to five years' imprisonment; the others were ordered expelled from China. Then the five were paraded, to be mocked and spat upon, through the streets of Sun Yat-sen's city.