Jan, 9.
Elsewhere will be found the rejoinder of the Shanghai Chinese Ratepayers' Association to the comments made by the "North-China Daily News" ion their recent letter to the Shanghai Municipal Council on the kidnapping peril. The courtesy of the language used by the Association is more commendable than the apparent belief on the part of the writers of the Jetter that sophistries can effectively fix responsibility for what is, admittedly, a very di quieting feature of life in Shanghai. Genuine sympathy with the anxiety of peaceful citizens is decidedly tempered by the indication that the mai object of the Association' original letter and, in no small degree, of the document now published is to pillory the administration of the International Settlement by dialectical ingenuity. Even naive astonishment at this soft impeachment tends to bring such a motive into sharp relief against a Lack-ground of irrelevancy Although therefore it pertinent to point out that the Police force in Shanghai costs considerably less than that of London in proportion to the population, it. would be vain to enter into discussion of the comparative values of crime in the two places. Nor is it particularly profitable to note that three years ago, when armed abductions had greatly increased, compliments -were showered on the Police of the Settlement, whereas the present vehement criticism, if taken at its face value, comes at a time when an actual decrease has been recorded. Even the fact that the engagement by Chinese citizens of armed bodyguards has been developed at the express instance of the Police has but an incidental bearing on the realities of the problem. More instructive is it to recall the allegation officially made by the Commissioner of Police in Shanghai to the effect that the Kidnapping gangs enjoyed the protection of influential persons, Brushing aside unsatisfying juggling with words and figure: it were better, in plain terms, to examine the' kidnapping evil. The outrages, of which residents in the Settlement have been the victims, have, with negligible exceptions, been perpetrated by. gangs operating from wit the Settlement, in condi which render immunity from punishment easy when once, with the coups effected, the miscreants have made ' good their escape beyond Settlement limits. The gangs. have been able ta rely on -the creation, under outside direction, of an organized system of terrorism which tends to, prevent the Settlement police from obtaining, before the event, the information which they have a right to expect, and, after the event, the cooperation and frank disclosure of material facts which are absolutely essential to the satisfactory rounding up of 4 criminals concerned. The position of the Police of the International Settlement in this matter is that of guardians of law and order who are deprived of assistance on which they should ordinarily be able to. rely. The "wonder, indeed, is that under such conditions they have been able so remarkably to keep the outrages within bounds. It can be asserted with confidence that if they could count on the readiness of victims who have made good their escape from the kidnappers—either by rescue, or by acquiescence in the demands made for ransom—to supply to freely and fully the det of their adventures, they would be able to come to closer grips with the sinister forces at work. So long as the gangs can look upon the non-Settlement areas as convenient places of refuge, long as there is full disclosure of kidnappings in the Settlement. and partial or complete suppress sion of similar outrages occurring outside, so long is it inpossible for the Police of the Shanghai Municipal Council to regard the kidnapping peril as a form of crime against which preventive measures can be instituted on entirely satis factory lines. The Ratepayers' Association have every right, as the letter published to-day asserts, to consider whether they. get for their expenditure a due measure of protection. They must however take into account the conditions under which that protection is provided. They have also to consider whether' those conditions are entirely within the control of the Settlement Police. The answer' is notoriously in the negative, and yet, from the readiness with which residence in the Settlement is sought by Chinese, it is reasonable to suggest that the Jurisdiction of the Municipal Council has definite advantages. Those advantages are not! apparently to be discerned in areas where the Shanghai Municipal Police are not responsible for preserving law and onder. That is the true answer which the Ratepayers' Association should carefully study.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.