July 28.
Tue remarks of the Acting Commissioner of Police on armed robberies, their cause and cure, in the last issue of the Muni-these men was that the Municipal Council had at its disposal an unlimited fund; a lucky bag, into which it need only dip its hand to provide the tens of millions of taels needed to build "factories" to give! work to all and sundry who, unless provided with easy -and cipal Gazette encourages us to refer once more to this subject. was on July 8 that Major Hilton-Johnson met the representatives of the Street Unions in conference on the best methods of dealing with a crime that has become a serious menace to the Settlement.
Bismarck is reported to ha said that London would be a magnificent city to loot. Doubt-, osa, numbers of members of the robber profession, who have made successful hauls in the interior, come to Shanghai to remunerative employment at the public expense, would join the: ranks of the armed robbers.
But suppose it possible to get over the initial difficulty of! finding capital for the factories, what are they going to manufacture once we have them built? Shall they be cotton mills or silk filatures? And what' will the people say who have -Jalready put their money into enterprises of this kind if we propose to establish _semi-philanthropic institutions which will compete with them in the recruit their energies and rest] open market?
Finally, their tired nerves after a long|doubt whether the material spell of hard work in which|which the robber bands are they played alternately —the composed could be turned into roles of hunters and hunted.
On these occasions they probably enjoy the amenities of our city, and admire its many admirable features, with its facilities for capable workmen by any process which did not involve compulsion. We fear the "factories" would! not run a week before the' converts to industrialism would. pleasure and recreation. But the business man sees Shanghai ay a place for doing business in, the sailor as a harbour in which to dock his ship. Every visitor sees those characteristic in which he himself is pa ticularly interested and our friends of the armed robber "down tools," reach for their, automatics and take to the! road once more. We certainly do believe in the root pi of the scheme, though. country needs roads to be built, canals digged, irrigation works. made and rivers straightened and confined between their persuasion see us, first and foremost, as "a magnificent city banks. These are remunerative schemes that will not encroach to loot."
Imagination pictures|on the individual rights of the chief of a robber gang others, but they cannot be sauntering down the Bund,|carried out by a Municipal gazing longingly at the towering bank buildings in which are Council, however willing. They are national works and the stored, as he believes, illimitable armies of derelicts who might wealth.
The shops with their be employed on their construc-
Jewellery, their silks and satins' and the numbers of portly. gentlemen and fair ladies who, St carried off and held to ransom, tion would have to be placed under military discipline like Labour Corps. It would be for' China's everlasting good to be would prove very remunerative "cash tickets." All these things. must be very tempting to a bold buccaneer even when on pleasure he is bent and, when the possibilities of the situation are envisaged, it must be admitted that a successful raid could be carried out, given the determined Jeader, the necessary equipment and a' grain of luck. It was therefore no merely imaginary peril that Major Hilton Johnson called on the people's representatives to face. Our, Luchowfu—correspondent told us how thousands of the inhabitants of that city deserted their homes at the mere rumour of the approach of the robbers, numbering only a few hundred men, who had captured Livan, sixty miles away. Truly, a wealthy city whose inhabitants are sheep must be a_ terrible temptation to Robin Hood and his merry men.
We were particularly struck with the suggestions made by "the Canton Road Street Union.
The men who compose that body are, we presume, elected in some fashion by the people of their district. They hold meetings to discuss "sovereign rights" and other important matters and send telegrams broadcast to high military and civil officials urging certain so disciplined but, as the Irish vagrant said, "This is a free country and a man can go barefoot in it if he wants to."
Meanwhile, until the Street Unions produce some more! practical idea, there is nou conferences. Major Hilton-Johnson asked for information about the whereabouts desperadoes and to use their influence in getting the "cat" made available in the Mixed Court. There is little doubt that: the average Chinese resident is continually in possession of information about armed robbers which would be invaluable to the police. Yet how very, very seldom is it ever given. As for the "'cat," now employed against crimes of violence and white slavery in many highly civilized countries, the only response to Major HiltonJohnson's _repre-_ sentations is that corporal] Punishment is contrary to the principles of democratic Government. Yet it is notorious that: the bamboo is used in every yamen in China. It is this hopeless attitude of make-believe and refusal to face facts which makes one almost weep. The Street Unions have been given a magnificent chance of actually ce-operating in the Government of Shanghai for ends of the utmost utility and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.