The letter which we publish another column with ference to kidnapping is ten by a Chinese resident, and gives a good indication of the apiension which the operation of armed kidnapping gangs is now using. The remedy. which he suggests, flogging in all cases and eepital punishment for the principal offenders, is certainly called for, and we can only trust that our cor: respondent will do his best to enlist the sympathy of Chinese officialdom towards this end, Only yesterday we reported a most dastardly affair in the Settlement, one kidnapped boy, from Chekiang, having been murdered and another severely injured by the perpetrators of the abduction, for the reason that the parents had not been able to produce the necessary ransom. The matter is too large a one to be dealt with in the space of a short note, but it _may be pointed out that it fe not an_ affair indigenous to Shanghai, Ningpo, it is stated, was cleaned up by the kidnappers quiet recently; so strenuous were the exertions that they seem to ha taken all the money possible out of that district. Moveover, people are always coming to. Shanghai for refuge from trouble caused militarists and bandits in other parts of China, and accordingly the foreign quarters of the port are now a highly favoured spot for the operations of these gande, In the uilying parts of Shanyhai the conditions" are yet worse, and tender stood that so grent has the terror become that merchants called 8 conference only a day or two ago with the object of asking the thorities to devise way's and means of counteracting it. When we find such ransoms as a million dollars being asked for a boy abducted from the French Concession and all manner of violence used towards those unable to pay up, it stands out in ever clearer prominence that swift retribution, in the form of the severest penalties possible, is the only way to meet the case, and not until the Chinese authorities take action along there lines will the menace end, The Owner of Solario "Re the St. Leger," writes a correspondent, "I am' sorry Morn has not won, but it may inter you and others to know that if has not been won by a Shanghai man, it has been won by a man who has been here—Sir John Rutherford, Then he was plain John Rutherford, 4 fine fellow and most excellent sportsman. My people met him in 23 years ago when he was ig through the Japanese cotton mills on his way to them from Shanghai. He is a Scotsman, but may really be more looked upon as a Manchester cotton man, at least then he was interested in the cotton trade very largely. Next. to Morris winning I am glad that John Rutherford won, because he is looked upon as a very fine type of sportsman." Seeing that there is a connexion between the owner of Solario and the Far East, an additional note about Sir John Rutherford will not be out of place. He was in Parliament from 1895 to 1910 and again from 910 to 1922, Darwen the Conservative interest. time he commanded the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry Cavalry, and for his services was created baronet in 1916,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.