There were 1,458 cases of armed robbery reported during the year, 1,166 occurring in dwelling houses, shops, etc., and 292 on the highway. One foreign Detective Sergeant, 1 Japanese "civilian, 21 Chinese civilians, 1 Sikh Constable, 1 Chit ese Constable and 1 Sikh watchman met their deaths in connexion with the above armed robberies, whilst 1 Japanese civilian, 56 Chinese civilians, 5 Chinese Constables and 2 Chinese Police watchmen were wounded. In addition, 1 Sikh Constable was shot and killed by armed robbers who were escaping after committing an armed robbery in the French Concession. The number of armed robberies during the year constitutes a record, more than trebling the figures for the previous year, which in turn were higher than' those of 1925. The explanation for this large increase was the continual state of civil war in China generally, and in particular the fighting which took place on the borders of the Settlement in the early months of 1927. Many of the defeated soldiers, deserters, ete., turned to robbery, whilst in other cases the pistols with which a large num= ber of them were armed found their way into the hands of persons of the criminal class, The re-introduetion at the end of the year of capital punishment for persons convicted of armed robbery will, it is hoped, lead to a decrease in this class of crime.
combating armed robbers, the police are greatly handicapped by the "lack of assistance giver, by persons robbed; who, the majority of instances, through fear, allow. the robbers ample ime to make good their cape before informing the Police.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.