HOME-MADE BANDITS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 759, 4 September 1929, Page 11

HOME-MADE BANDITS

HOW IT’S DONE IN CHINA VISITOR ARRIVES FROM EAST Australia is trying hard to capture the market in the East. This is the opinion of Mr. H. Tresidder, of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Co., who returned from Singapore yesterday by the Ulimaroa, on furlough to Auckland. Mr. Tresidder says that New' Zealand butter and dried milk are popular products in Singapore, but he did not see any effort made to advertise them. An Australian firm had just opened a big cold-storage plant in Singapore and was trying to capture the trade there. Merchants admitted that the fault with Australian and New Zealand products was in the packing, which did not compare with those imported from England and America. Speaking of the naval base at Singapore, Mr. Tresidder said that the dock was opened some months ago. The general impression was that the advent of the Labour Government in England would not have any effect on the completion of the base and that work would go ahead as scheduled. During his time in the cable service Mr. Tresidder has spent several years in China and is able to give some idea of how the conflicting factors have disturbed the life of the peasant classes. He tells the following story as an example of how the agriculturists have been forced to become the bandits about which the rest of the world reads in its newspapers. About 20 miles from Foochow, where Mr. Tresidder was stationed, there was a fertile valley, 20 miles long. This was planted with a particularly sw'eet variety of orange. Every year large quantities of these oranges were exported to Shanghai. Hongkong, Singapore and other centres. The Chinese who grew the fruit loaded it oil to junks on the river from the bank. When the various military and naval forces disturbed the lives of the peasants about four years ago each separate force collected taxes. A general who had charge of the military faction collected taxes in the city of Foochow*, and the admiral who had charge of the gunboats on the river took charge there and collected his taxes. The admiral considered that to load oranges from the bank of the river on to junks was an out-of-date method of handling the fruit, so he erected a small and shaky jetty from which all the oranges had to be shipped. A sentry placed on one end of the jetty saw’ that still more taxes w’ere raid, w’ith the result that the poor growers had nothing left at the end of that season.

The admiral then called the head men together, told them that orange growing was unprofitable and that they should grow opium instead. When they told him that growing opium was forbidden by the Government he remarked that he was in charge. As a result every orange tree was chopped down in that fertile valley and opium planted in place of the fruit. Next season the whole opium crop was confiscated by the admiral and the people forced to fly to the hill country, where they became bandits because they were starving. Previously these people had been law-abiding citizens of China. It w is the military and naval factions who were the real bandits, said Mr. Tresidder.