BANDIT MENACE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 275, 16 August 1932, Page 10

BANDIT MENACE

Big Problem in China BRITISH NAVY’S WORK Commander of the Mantis GUNBOAT ON YANG-TSE Dominion Special Service. Auckland, August 15. Desperate hand-to-hand encounters with Chinese rebel bandits were among the many varied experiences which befel Commander H. L. Howden during two years spent in command of a gunboat on the Yang-tse-Kiang River. Commander Howden was recently appointed to the Royal Australian Navy, and passed through Auckland by the Monterey on his way to Sydney, where he will join his ship. Throughout 1930 and 1931 Commander Howden was in command of the gunboat Mantis, which was mentioned several times in the cable news during the recent disturbances In China. Throughout these two years the Mantis, with other craft of simllar type, patrolled the sweeping yellow stretches of the Yang-tse, the great artery of China’s trade. The entire territory known as the Middle River District was in the hands of bandits. Commander Howden said practically every vessel navigating the river was fired on, and hardly a day passed without the necessity of sending landing parties ashore from the Perhaps the outstanding single incident of Commander Howden’s service in China was when he landed at the head of a naval party with the object of blowing up a rebel fort. The little British force was suddenly attacked by bandits about 800 strong, and a fierce encounter followed. The naval men had to fight their way yard by yard back to their ship, and there were casualties on both sides. “Encounters with bandits are really only a form of guerilla warfare and all in the day’s work,” Commander Howden said. “For all that the true magnitude of the bandit menace is not appreciated outside China. The district, of course, provided them wi.h a happy hunting ground. They were scattered in bands on both banks in Middle River District. They have their own fortresses, many of which are in almost impregnable positions, and they live by, raiding surrounding villages and preying on the commerce of the Yang-tse. .As fast as one band is exterminated another springs up to take its place. w “China has always had its bandits, but the increase during recent years can be directly traced to Communist influences. Egasants are turned off their land when it is seized by Communists, and they immediately become bandits, while the Communists themselves carry on a little banditry as a matter of course. “One of the largest and most populous provinces in China is entirely given over to bandits and Communists, and in this case the terms are practically synonomous,” said Commander Howden. “One still hears the plea of China for the Chinese reiterated by people who have no knowledge of the conditions among those teeming millions. China is in chaos at present, but if European influence were, withdrawn from the country the existing conditions would be mild in comparison. The majority of people probably do not know that in many districts of China one can still see men being tortured in the streets of the towns.”