June 19. tue encounter between police and armed robbers on Sunday afternoon in the western district is welcome for other reasons than. that it resulted in the death or capture of the ruffians. Happening as it did in broad daylight, in some of the best known roads of Shanghai, it naturally attracts far more attention than if it had ocourred at night ina slum. And it is time that public attention were aroused to the very serious prevalence of armed robbery and the smuggling of arms, Certain ly not week passes without its instance of one or the other.
The resulting danger to life is extremely grave. On Sunday afternoon the injuries received by the pursuing party were, happily, slight. But one foreign lady had narrow escape of being hit in hor motor-car and, as things are, alifest at any moment some one might be hit and killed. Tt is easy to imagine what an outery would be raised, while at the same time it would be absurd and most unfair to the police to say that they must not shoot on stich occasions. Too much admiration can hardly be felt for the courage and devotion with which the police generally, of all branches and nationalities, carry on the war against armed robbers. For not only is that work of the highest danger, but the police are hampered in doing it by their inability to prevent arms from entering Shanghai and by the inadequacy of the punishment for men found possession of ther.
It must be remembered that the Police have no control either over the harbour or on its banks and wharves. That is in the hands of the Customs. As we have paid tribute to the work of the Settlement police, s0-would we certainly render it to that of the Customs men. With miserably inadequate forces for the large area they have to cover, the Customs police do astonishingly good work in seizing contraband. As_ the result of pressure by the Chambers of Commerce, their numbers are to be increased. But however many of them there are, their success in capturing arms on their arrival cannot be s0 effective as would be some means of stopping the smuggled consignments at the port of shipment. The public are justified in asking whether such' means are available and, if they are, why they are not used. This, it appears to us, is a matter for the Consular Body, on account of the many issues involved, and they cannot be too strongly urged to take action. With the same Body does it lie to stiffen the penalties for smuggling arms, for dealing in smuggled arms, and for being' in possession of them. Not long' ago we drew attention to the special ordinance now in force in Hongkong, which—empowers magistrates to inflict many years of imprisonment and the "cat" for these offences. Corporal punishment is, unhappily, past praying for in Shanghai. But even the terms of imprisonment. that are or actually can be inflicted in local courts are absolutely derisory and provide no deterrent either for Chinese or foreigners.
It is grossly unfair to the police that they should have to work under such disabilities and inasmuch as the public's safety is also involved, as shown by the affair on Sunday afternoon, they too have the strongest interest in demanding that more energetic measures be employed than are available for coping both with the armed robber and the man who supplies him with arms.
In conclusion a word may be said of what would happen in the ease of a policeman killed by armed robbers. In this the specials are as much concerned as the regulars, possibly more so, in that so large a proportion of them. are married, These men take their share of night patrolling and also in search parties and round-ups. Hitherto only one of them has been wounded, Mr.
Rebsamen: he was fully' compensated by the Council, and there cannot be the slightest doubt that in any similar or worse case the Council would deal liberally. But as matters stand, the amount of compensation is at the Council's pleasure: there is no kind of insurance either for regular or special police, and one cannot but think that it would be more satisfactory in all ways if there were.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.