Control of waterfront activities since the Bund was temporarily converted into a docking district for dozens of small ships bringing food and other supplies into the Settlement has been a subject of considerable discussion ever since the system was started. Racketeering by wharf gangsters, wholesale pilfering by hordes of loafers and beggars and complete disregard for law and order by thousands of coolies who swarm on and off boats have occupied the attention of the Municipal Police, and a special force of more than 100 men strive desperately to keep matters in hand and enforce some semblance of control although the difficulties are almost insuperable. One instance of lack of ce-operation by other members of the public was witnessed yesterday afternoon. A Chinese policeman was attempting to disperse a mob Of rickshaw coolies struggling at the Customs jetty for foreign sailors coming ashore. He seized the cushion from one offending rickshaw and was tackling another which had narrowly escaped an accident with a motor truck when another rickshaw carrying a sailor, passed and the puller deftly snatched the cushion from the Chinese policeman, and the sailor passenger obliged in defeating the ends of the law by sitting on it. The result was a futile chase after the second puller while the first got away and the policeman, representing law and order in the Foreign Settlement, was left a foolish figure with the sailor and pullers laughing heartily. Xt was quite a clever move on the part of the puller to accomplish this little feat, but was it clever, on the part of the sailor who probably might need the policeman's assistance some time? He was smiling as the puller rushed him away so it is to be supposed he, was right.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.