LAWLESSNESS IN CHINA.

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1918, Page 8

LAWLESSNESS IN CHINA.

EUROPEANS KIDNAPPED.

SOLDIERS BY BAY.

BRIGANDS BY NIGHT

(The following- extraordinary narrative from the '*iN T ew East" throws a lurid light on the problem of Chinese aid for Siberia. If there is any truth in the story at all then from the Bolsheviks to the Mongols would be a change merely from Gehenna to Hades).

Lawlessness in China is shockingly spfrevalent just now, says our Peking- correspondent. The areas in which law is totally, absent are increasing- in number and dimensions, and the respect in which foreigners are usually held is obviously declining. The fault, of course, lies with the Administration, which is either so rotten or so feeble that it cannot cope with the disorderly forces. The Administration is what it is in consequence of the political confusion due to the jealousies among" the military leaders. Though there are more men under arms in China to-day than probably at any time in her history, brigandage is now more.rampant than it has ever been- Yet more and more soldiers are being recruited, more and more money is being thrown away upon arms, not with the object of creating force to secure the maintenance of order, but to serve the selfish ambitions of unscrupulous officals. Kidnapping- of well-to-do people has always been more or less common in China, but the crime is now greatly on the increase. Rich merchants, their sons or small children, are taken by bandits, carried oft' to the hills, or otherwise secreted, and held until ransomed. If their friends refuse to pay, murder is sometimes done. That is a commonplace of existence in the provinces, as far as the Chinese themselves are concerned. But it is a new develop ment, and an ominous one, that foreigners are being subjected to such treatment. A month ago Messrs Kyle and Purcell, American engineers, engaged in railway survey work for the firm of Siems Carey, were attacked in Honan, their guard overpowered, their money taken, and themselves captured. The bandits thereafter offered to ransom them, for money, in exchange for arms and ammunition, and even for employment in the regular army for the whole band and its leader, the leader to be given an independent command of his own region. NO RESPECTERS OP SONSThe bandits have been surrounded by troops, and in one fight Mr Purcell managed to escape. Mr Kyle is still a prisoner, and there is the danger that if the troops close on the bandits they will kill him. The American Legation has been extremely active on behalf of Mr Kyle, and the provincial authorities also, but it remains that during- a month's captivity lie has continuously been in jeopardy, and is still in great danger. In Suiyuan the other day a Swedish missionary was kidnapped and carried off into the interior of Mongolia as a prisoner. Troops have been sent to rescue him, but there is yet no word of his release. Pour days ago two American lady missionaries, Mrs Dixon and Miss Catherine Smith, Avere carried off by brigands somewhere near the Shantungborder. The local magistrate warned the elders of all the adjacent villages that three in each village would immediately be decapitated if the ladies were not forthcoming'. Mercifully, this threat has had the desired effect.

What foreigners Lave to suffer is a drop in the ocean as compared with the misery inflicted on the natives. A missionary in Shnesi draws n harrowing picture of what is happening there. His iown was visited by a hand of robberswho gutted ihe whole place and carried awav the principal inhabitants. The magistrate was

hidden in the missionary's house, but the robbers forced their way in and took him away. Many people were murdered du' rag that visit, and many wounded by rifle shots or bayonets, but the horrible thing- is that there are about forty men and women in the hospital suffering from dreadful burns received while the robbers roasted them in order to make them disclose where their valuables were hid. As if that were not enough, when the first band had gone a second" an independent one arrived and took possession of the town. As the missionary wrote these cut-throats were going round looking- to see if.their predecessors had left anything worth having- The inhabitants were in a sore condition of suspense, and the missionary had little hope that his property would continue to be respected. MAKING UP ARREARS OE PAY. In Szechuan the soldiers are military men by day and brigands by night, and they respect nobody. Many foreigners have been robbed in Szechuan, some openly by brigands in daylight, and others after dark by men strongly suspected to bo soldiers. There is no redress to be obtained by anybody. Conditions like this prevail probably in half the provinces in the country. Specific instances are so numerous that tliey cannot be detailed. But what happened on March 21 and 24 at Ping-kiang in Hunan, during the mnrch of the northern army on Changsha shows what can he done by the regular army. The southern armies have been little better, and there are numerous instances on record of wholesale looting by both during* the past few months. The southern forces during the general retirement from Yochow streamed through Peking for two days without doing any damage. The very last lot of southerners broke into a few shops during the night. In the morning the first lot of the northern army arrived and a reign of terror commenced. The men spread all over the town, breaking into houses and shops, looting and demanding money. A Roman Catholic priest was shot down, and is now in hospital dangerously wounded- The manager of a reftige for women was shot dead. An English missionary lady was seized by three ruffians, who dragged the'rings off her fingers and threatened to cut off her hand if she did not give up the Avatch on her Avrist. The houses of a missionary and the Standard Oil agent were looted, as Avell as the Wesleyan and Mission Boys' School and the Roman Catholic Gills' School. Indescribable scenes went on for four days as the northern troops came and went, and every appeal to officers was met with fair words and no fulfilment. A large city was completely gutted of property, the woodwork of the houses destroyed for firewood, horses stabled in the rooms, and so forth.