New Chinese Terror

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7409, 17 December 1930, Page 8

New Chinese Terror

SPREAD OF BRIGANDAGE GANGS LEVYING TRIBUTE Although the Nanking Government in China has regained some of vho pres tigo it lost in the summer as a result of the Northern Coalition’s military successes, says the diplomatic correspondent of tho ‘Observer,’ London, it has not yet re-established itself to an extent sufficient to dispel the increasing anxiety felt by foreign interests over the new terror produced by rapidly spreading brigandage throughout the eighteen provinces. No doubt the condition of stalemate that descended upon the struggle between Aon Hsi-shau and Yeng Kai-shek on the one hand and Chiang Kai-shek on tho other provided the opportunity for banditry with impunity,, but the scale on which tho bandits have begun to operate is causing consternation among those who have economic or financial interests iu China. As the demoralisation increases, brigandage becomes a more and more popular profession. It has bccu stated in the Shanghai Press that fourteen separate Red armies are ravaging Central and Southern China without opposition, their main objective being loot. One Communist gang established itself at Hanchwan, only thirty miles from Hankow, and effectively levied tribute on tho surrounding country. The capture of individuals such as of the two English missionaries for a ransom of 50,OOOdol is a mere sideline in the newlydeveloped technique of banditry. A Communist gang lately held .up Changsha and demanded a ransom of a million dollars under the threat of burning it to the ground. As a form of preliminary demonstration the gang looted the town and executed many of the local officials. The gang left the town within twenty-four hours, the town having been recaptured, according to the Nanking Ministry of Marine, by a gunboat ; but the more general belief was that the 1,000,00Ud0l had been paid. The gang next, moved toward Hankow, naming 100,000dol as their price.

It is believed that the separate gangs iiro controlled by a central organisation. Their methods are remarkably consistent and thorough. In one case they deliberately won a desperate reputation by sending a gang 3,000 strong to capture the town of Yungang, on ihe Honan-Hupeli border, and to murder 15,000 of the inhabitants before carrying off 500 of them for ransom. In one fortnight no fewer than fifty towns were captured, raided or looted bv Communist gangs. A crew of pilates even landed in Shanghai harbour, killed a Chinese and wounded four others, one of whom, a British Australian, died of his wounds.