To the Editor of the "Nomra-Caiva Datty News."
Sin:—it is very kind of you to publish such letters as Mr. Mital's, of January 12, and I am glad to learn that some of us, the inhabitants of Shanghai, would make suggestions for the welfare and safety of the public.
I entirely "agreed with Mr. Mital as to Shanghai being a very! dangerous place to live in, for there are so many kidnapping and robbery' eases, and I also agree with him that] it is our duty, as inhabitants of this city, to do something or to make some kind of suggestions for the Prosperity and safety of our city.
'AS to Mr. Mital's suggestion, that is, making an additional law relating to cases of kidnapping, whoever! pays the required ransom for the release of any one who has. been Kidnapped, shall be punished on.
jail level with the punishment which the kidnapper deserves—it there is such law existent, it, seems to me, it is a very unjust and cruel law, although I believe that if some persons whose sons or daughters, fathers or mothers, or some near relatives were Kidnapped, would rather sacrifice the lives of their! dear ones than to pay ransoms to the kidnappers to have their dear ones! released, it wotild discourge bad! characters from getting rich quickly by means of kidnapping.
After all, we all are human be ings; we would rather sacrifice our earthly belongings, that is, gold, to see or to learn that our dear ones are out of danger.
It is an unjust law, if we are put in prisons with a criminal who foreed us to hand over our money to him at the point of a pistol, and we did hand over our money to him for the fear of the danger of our lives if we refused. It is the same reason for paying the required ransoms for the release of our dear ones.
Tt is a cruel law, if our intention is good or kind, that is; we give up our gold and have our relatives resed, that the law should punish us fon the same footing as the kinappers.
As kidnapping is usually done by two or three Chinese with an automobile and the victims usually are Chinese, therefore I suggest that the police force should stop and search every automobile as a suspect, if; there are more than three persons including the chauffeur riding, any where, any time and any place. If this is done, I am sure that there would not be so many cases of kidnappings and it would prevent] many eases of would be kidnapping.
T am, ete, Ennest CHANT.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.