The announcement that the Board of Punishment in Peking has authorized the reintroduction of the "bamboo" is not without practical interest for Shanghai, if it means that this extremely effective instrument of punishment is once more to be brought into use at the Mixed Court.
Whea the order for its abolition was given in 1906, it wae felt that an effective check on crime had been removed, and from tim time since that date the Municipal Police have endeavoured to induce the authorities to reintroduce it.
They were met with the reply that the bamboo was & barbarous instrument, and ought not to be associated with the administration of justice in the newly-organized State, but it is by no means certain that this "barbarous means of punishment" was looked upon with disfavour elsewhere than in the Settlement, An especially urgent demand for the bamboo was made about this time last year, during the "armed robbery epidemic," the increase of crimes of this character, and others of lesser importance,' being tributed largely to the fact that the offenders were in no danger of receiving the much-dreaded blows. Of late, the extreme penalty of death has been meted out for armed criminals, and some officials are inclined to question the need for using the bamboo in connexion with the smaller crimes, holding the view that it should be used only in such cases as formerly in England were punishable with "the cat."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.