CHINESE PIRATE IS GAOLED FOR LIFE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17832, 28 April 1926, Page 4

CHINESE PIRATE IS GAOLED FOR LIFE.

TORTURED HIS VICTIMS. A Chinese pirate has been sentenced in the Supreme Court of Hong- ( Long to imprisonment for life, in addition to nineteen years’ concurrent imprisonment and twenty strokes of the “cat " This is the second time within two years that one of the many pirates who infest the Chukiang River and menace all sea traffic in the area has been caught and tried. This man was one of a band of pirates which boarded a large passenger launch in the Chukiang River in July, 1925, while it was still in British 'waters. He and his followers took all the passengers ashore, robbed them, and held them in their lairs in the mountains for four months until some thousand pounds ransom was paid (says “The Daily Express”). Violence and torture were used to force the victims to send for this money. One. man told the court that when asked what amount he couldr pay he had replied that his people were poor, and named an insignificant sum. The pirate chief thereupon Qrderei

his right ear to be cut off and produced a foreign razor for his henchman to do it. The man, bound and helpless, had to submit while the pirate roughly slashed off his ear, leaving a gaping wound to heal as best it might. His uncle happened to be captive, also, and it was ordered by the chief that his heavy moustache be cut off (a supreme insult in China) This and the severed ear were wrapped up and sent by post, to the relatives of the 1 men with a demand for ransom. Sixty j pounds was sent, and the men were released. One of the men who had been kidnapped was working on a steamer run- ■ ning between Macao and Hongkong a short time ago. when he noticed the pirate chief travelling in its steerage, in all probability laying a scheme for pirating it, a common method in China. The victim was first ashore at Hongkong, indicated his man to a police officer, and had him arrested. He has just been convicted. He received seven years’ imprisonment on each of two counts of robbery and kidnapping, five years for being in unawful possession of arms, and a life sentence and twenty strokes of the “cat” for committing an act of piracy. He was morose, and refused to say anything except that he was [falsely accused.