Web. 11.
Tue trial which concluded in the French Mixed Court yesterday with the condemnation to: death of four men found guilty of complicity in the Tungchow piracy and the handing of a fifth over to the Chinese authorities. for further investigation, is one of the most important which has recently taken place in Shanghai, To those living in well-guarded spots in Europe or elsewhere, piracy seems a thing of the middle ages: it is a plore with tales of the Spanish Main ind so forth, and ought not to have a place in modern civilized life. To people in China, however, the case is vastly different, and it is no exaggeration to say that we are face to face with a very great, if not growing evil, that the conviction of these men and the sentences imposed. upon them must be considered important events in the annals of this particular phase of crime! on the China seas, It must be! remembered that while these! piracies first showed themselves in a marked degree in connexion with shipping trading between' Hongkong and Canton, they! have gradually been extending northwards. Following Canton, a notorious case occurred at.
Amdy, and thereafter lines sailing out of Shanghai, the China' Merchants and.the San Peh, were equally victimized. Then came this striking case of the! Piracy of one of the China Navigation Co.'s boats, per petrated so far north as Weihaiwei, wherein the -long} arm of justice has just played its arts As to how the pirates—those Drought before the French Mixed Court—were laid by the heels, too much ought not to be said at the present moment, for the Jast thing that anybody wishes is to give their copartners the clue as to how they were arrested. There are others who must be brought to justice before the gang can be described as having even been scotched. We can say this, however, that every credit is due to the shipowners, Messrs. Butterfield Swire, for the promptitude with which they acted on information yeovived as to the presence of the same pirates on another of their boats. The authorities were instantly put.into touch wita the situation notified to them, and thereafter the Customs authorities and the French Police—these ships berth of the French Concession Eund—did the rest, Particular praise is ale Jdue to the French Police for the vigilance displayed in_ their search for the men... Two or three hundred passengers had to be examined—metaphorical speaking it was a microscopic! examination—but the police had left no loophole, thanks to the excellence of their arrangements and the very large staff engaged jon the work, and the results fully justified all this effort. 'The convicted men were readily recognized by officers and passengers of the Tungchow who were in Shanghai, and additional corroboration' was obtained from Tientsin where _photographs had been sent. Accordgly the Court had no difficulty in arriving at its conclusion, and it is conceded on all hands that the work of the French Police has been beyond all As to the next step in this case. The nest of pirates in Bias Bay has to be rooted out. There is not the slightest ques-ion shout the place from where these men come, and we believe that it has also been established that the other piracies in which Shanghai is especially interested emanated from this home. Regarding this, one part of the decision of the -French Mixed Court is of particular importance, for while four men hi been sentenced to death, a fifth has been handed over to the Chinese authorities for further investigation. It should be possible for these authorities to fix the situation of this pirate haunt so exactly that a net, not necessarily very widely spread, should bring them all within its. compass. Probably it will refire some sort of amphibious operation, but the Chinese have the men and the ships to do it, if only the political influences in that part of the country will give the necessary permission for their use. It is a campaign they ought to undertake primarily for the protection of their own shipping, which has suffered more than any other, at any rate in these more northerly seas, and if this opportunity is missed, the loss prestige will be considerable. But it must be grasped at once. snd all the evidence brought out in the French Court as to the pirate lair be used to immediate advantage. Otherwize the culprits may have moonlighted aw:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.