When the Shanghai Tammany was broken up, kidnapping was at its height and' was such a good business that others ventured "into it, Chinese circles, it is believed that there are five separate. gan; operating at the prosont time These gangs are not limited to the small fry of petty crime, but are undoubtedly ed by important and experienced men. The most notorous is) that which signs "itself "Hsiung" and which specializes. in Dankers. Its method is to address polite'and well-written note to the banker, telling him that such and auch amount is not too much and that another, amount is not to litle, 'The kidnappers then' "advise the person s0 addressed to advertise in the Chinese newspapers stating how much he is willing to pay to be let alone. Code words ute provided, For instance, "Tien," heaven, might mean $10,000; Ti, earth, might mean $5,000 ud Jen,' man, might mean $1,000, "The blackmailed person expected to work one of thexe words into a message, whereupon he it informed how to pay the money.
There can be no question, but that the author of this plan is an edueatand important Chinese, There fare many indications as te who he fa, but one dares not yet even whisper the mame because there must be evidence und evidence is scrupulously withald by the Chinese, but in private conversation they do. point their finger to a certain individual, Kidnapped as a Warning In the ease of some persons Kid-rapped, the objective is not money Dut a warning not to interfere with the squeeze of certain vested inter cate, The iinapping ofthe head of the Land Office may be the responsibility of 8 group Ti-pao, who have been squeezing the small landowners of Pootung for many generations. This is suppositious but the interesting fact i, that his ease, there is no report of 3 demand having been made for money for that any other explanation has been offered by the kidnappers themselves. His. release, suddenly sund unexpectedly, has been explained vay as arising from a fear among! the kidnappers: that their place on art Road had been discovered. It more correct to assume that their warning as to what might happen had been clearly enough - brought home, s0 they released their Certain persons who had been affiliated with previous "northera governments or with foreign. Dusiness organizations are threatened because it is assumed that they might not be protected by the present revolutionary government. Jone ease, the victim was saved by the brilliant work of his own chauffeur. It is known that some of the younger men are armed and randy for the kidnappers, but on the whole, the victims go willingly because. they fear sudden death to themselves or their relatives one instance. a person threat-fened managed "to evade his kidnappers by the skin of his teeth, whereupon he took refuge in 8 foreign hotel, When he arrived at the hotel, he discovered many of his friends there, all of whom had received threatening letters. Others fare known to have gone to Dairen and Tientsin where they are safer than in Shanghai at the present time.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.