To the Editor of the "Norra-Cuiva Datty News." Siz,—Two days ago I was in Nanking Road and saw two ricsha coolies following couple of foreign ladies, kowtowing—to tham. and crying bitterly: The ladies were evidently annoyed at the persistent attentions of the coolies who, could scarcely be kept off by the Sikh policeman who was trying to chase them away One of the ladies said to me, "What should we do with these coolies; they won't leave us alone." tried fo find out what the trouble was and learned that the riesha men had been hired by the ladies and had taken them to several shops. Somewhere in Nanking Road they were ordered to wait outside a certain shop and this being in the area where ricshas are not allowed to stand, a policeman had taken their licence plates and they would have to go to the police station and pay 60 cts, each to redeem them. The coolies said they had told the jadies they were not allowed to wait in that particular place but the ladies had said "maskee, must wait here."
It seemed to me hard lines on the coolies who had to lose a day's use of the vehicles for which they bad paid and pay a 60 ct. fine beside. When one thinks how many miles they must run in this hot weather to earn 60 cents one cannot help sympathizing with them when. they strike a piece of bad luck like this.
Having a little time to spare 1 went to the police station and told the side of the story I had heard to the officer in the charge room. said "Look at all these ricshas out there (about 30 decorated with chalk marks filled the yard). These are all waiting till I have time to attend to "them. How can I tell which are the two you refer to? Beside, they had no business to be there anyway. They are told the rule of the road and if they break it they must pay the fine." Well, that is right too. The police simply must keep certain crowded parts of our streets free of standing vehicles. But if the men's story was true—and there is much virtue in an "if?—it was the foreign' ladies who did not understand the traffic regulations and insisted on "the men waiting where they did. The police must do their duty, but when one has seen the unholy joy with which a Sikh or Chinese policeman tears the licence plate off riesha, and when one has seen that in the police station there is only an officer in charge who has to deal with a crowd of standing vehicles as a side issue while attending to cther duties and has no time to listen to any thing the unfortunate coolie has to say, it hardly seems as though. the ricsha man got a square deal. One hesitates to say that fines should only be imposed py a magistrate, but if an informal court is held in the police station surely there should be one officer specially detailed. for this work. Even the most hardened magistrate has spasms of conscience sometimes but a policeman dealing with riesha coolies has no time for sentiment.
Another case came under my
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.