Mr. G. L. (campbell as 2nd Italian Company.— as Captain. as 2nd Lieut, Customs Company.—
Mr. R. H.R, Wade as Captain, Armed Robberies, Correspondence with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce:
Translation of letter from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the Counaah, November 50, 1914.
This year the number of persons in the Settlement has very largely increas ed and the number of bad characters has increased likewise, Cases of theft and robbery and wounding are accordingly cons antly heard of and the mer-residing in the Settlement are all alarmed. Daring recent days the han Chang diamond shop la Yunnan Road, the Ta Hsin Chang foreign goods shop in Markham Rond, the Lien Ta cash h u Fokien Road and the Lun Vu cash shop in the Sungkiang Road have teen robbed one after another according to staemen's in the newspapers, which are probably not false, The merchants of the several trades have all come to this Chamber and expostulated in the following vein "This year the violent conduct of desperadoes is such as never has been before: all for the reason that after the eon of the off-nce they are not sought out and arrested with ser bat saunter at large a law, and consequently act with indiscrimmate boidaes to the injury of shops in the street, You s ould have long since begoed the Municipal Council genuinely to give effect to measures for tranquilising the locality and_ protecting public we think ¢ e Municipal Council ca our public daty is involved: aod bot pose om réaponebillty,. The and of these bad characters daily becoming more fierce; an! even in busy places thefts and robberies incessantly occur, If the Chamber of Commerce still keeps silence, upon what can the merchants depend They have severally and pressingly requested the Chamber to communicate this, It is to be observed that of late the number of cases of crime by bad characters is indeed such as to occasion misgiving. The Chamber is well aware that the Council, bearing responsibility for public order, will consequently not permit that merchants in the Settle ment shall be constantly in a state of alarm, There are ladeed very many bad characters about the place, and if the stream flows undammed it will become a river.
The Chamber of Commerce is the representative of all the merchants and cannot but earnestly press and request that the offenders in the previous cases be quickly sought out, arrested, and most severely punished; so that bad characters will retreat andthe locality will be at peace; whereby li very much appreciate the Council's public spirit.
With an expression of distinguished consideration, ginal from
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.