ARMS FOR CHINESE.
A GUN-RUNNING CONSPIRACY.
MASTER MIND AT THE HEAD
SYNDICATES WORK IX EXGLAXD.
The armed attacks on Britishers in hina has led to the discovery of an)P mazing smuggler's syndicate operating 1: 1 England, Holland, and Germany, ; 'hich has been making substantial pro- t ts out of supplying weapons to the ? ioters, says the "Sunday Chronicle." ' For some time past, the authorities r ere have been aware that revolvers, t ifles, and ammunition have been v lysteriously smuggled from this coun- r ry to Hamburg. Xo gun-rnnning on a v lrge scale has been attempted—that ould be next to impossible in view of 1 he strict watch which is kept at the s orts —but the traffic has been steady a nd continuous. Perhaps in some in--1 i a tances the smugglers' "coup" has only j otalled a few dozen revolvers, in others, ; erhaps, a few thousand rounds of ball ] artridge, but their activities have been r pread over a long period, and the num- f er of weapons which have found their t ,-ay into China through their agency t lust be tremendous. < A recent coup by the authorities in s longkong. should pave the way for i evelopments here. Police, acting on l pecial information, seized a consign- } iient of German arms, a rigorous in- f uiry followed, and then it was that l he syndicate's activities were unarthed. Five men in all were arrested, i ucluding a clerk in the official receiver's i iffice. Two of these absconded, for- i citing heavy bail, while the other three <■ vere banished, there being technical f ibjections to using the evidence against i hem. ' The importance of the discovery, how- ' ver, lies in the seizure of a number of ' locuments which may materially help ' owards the ultimate weeding out of the • yndicate's nurAerous ofl'-shoots. Chief ( iinong these papers are several which end to throw light on the identity of ' he sinister Moriarty of the organisa- ] ion—the mysterious Oriental who is ts directing brain and evil genius. Mysterious Figurehead. , Chinese are smuggled here to slavery i >y a gang of "yellow birders," headed iy a cultured Chinaman who was i ormerly an associate of Brilliant ( Jiang's and one of the biggest "dope* i igents in London. The men were < irought in in packing cases and boxes .• md kept in a bondage of terror by their i nasters, who paid them next to nothing i or their labour. Information points to this Chinaman md the mysterious individual who is i lirecting the traffic in arms being one md the same man. The Chinese lomieiled in this country know him well >y repute and fear his power. At one time he was a marked figure n a dozen night clubs in London, the ; ■scort of smart women, faultlessly Iressed and never, seemingly, at a loss or money. Where he came from, what lis attendants were, no one knew; lie was never communicative. He was list drifted into the swim, and being .here, was accepted. passed, and then came sudlenly the dramatic disclosure of the nan's real trade. The police arrested lim for "dope" trafficking, and so seriuis was tlie evidence against him and •o conclusive was the proof that he j ,vas one of London's major dope kings .hat the police applied for. and were iranted, an order for his deportation. j For some months after the law had .aken its course nothing more was heard j if him. although it was believed that lie was in Hamburg engaged in smuggling enterprises with a syndicate of which he was the chief. Then, when liis ill-fame in this country had been ilmost forgotten, detective officers searching vessels at Southampton detained an individual whose papers were palpably forgeries, and who could give no satisfactory account of himself. Reference to the dossiers at Scotland Yard and a comparison of finger prints showed that the mystery man was none other than the elusive Dope KingAgain he was summarily deported, and the police heard no more of him until a few months ago when aliens officers making their customary inquiries discovered in various parts of the country, particularly in South Wales, a number of Chinamen, who, apparently, had got into the country by a back door opened for them by him. Human Traffic. Xone had registered for the simple reason that they had no papers or credentials of any kind. All they could tell the authorities was that it was well known to Chinese who wanted to reach this country, and had no means of doing so legitimately, that there existed in Hamburg a syndicatac which was willing to "arrange matters" for a lump sum of money. Acting on this information the authorities, with the assistance of the Hamburg police, were successful in breaking up the headquarters of the gang, and the smuggling dwindled to a mere trickle, then stopped altogether. The Dope King, however, escaped them, and until they became aware of this new trafficking in arms it was thought that he had transferred his activities to his own country. Profitable Smuggling. Xow they are again faced with his menace, for there is little doubt that his is the brain which is engineering the present syndicate. Far more profitable than anything he has hitherto undertaken, the venture is piling him up a fortune. How the smuggling is being worked is simplicity itself. Already his agents were in existence in- various parts of the country, for they are the same lie has employed in his previous enterprises, In Cardiff. Liverpool. London, he is in league with men he can trust to do his work, whom he pays handsomely for their services. Arms are' bought by them, taken to pieces, packed, and entrusted to travelling agents whose business it is to deliver them safely in Hamburg. Second-hand arms are not difficult to obtain in seaport towns, where most foreign seamen carry revolvers. The price paid may vary from a few shillings to three or four pounds, but when they reach China the weapons sell for their weight in gold. It is in Germany, however, that the bulk of the trafficking is being done. Last year, reports the Hongkong Government, thousands of Mausers were imported into the colony from Berlin. The price paid for such weapons, each with 100 rounds of ammunition, was. from £2 10/ to £3 15/. Much of the ammunition was noticed to be of very recent German manufacture.
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 187, 10 August 1925, Page 9
Word Count
1,074ARMS FOR CHINESE. Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 187, 10 August 1925, Page 9
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