Japanese, However, "Retain Most of Suspects and One Pistol; May Be December 28 Bandits EMBERS of the Settlement Police who had worked tirelessly, day and night, to track down the gangs operating brazenly in the Western district, struck yesterday afternoon and arrested six men and three women at a hut about 200 yards from Columbia Road.
The arrests followed a lively exchange of shots in which, however, no-one was wounded.
The bandits threw two or three pistols into a creek, and by dusk the Police had recovered one of these.
It was an automatic which had been stolen from the S.M.P. themselves.
One of the men arrested was a suspect who had been seriously wounded twice off Tunsin on Monday evening, This man, with bullet holes in his head and chest, was lying under guard the Police Hospital last night, still in a serious condition.
In addition, three other male members of the gang were arrested in other raids, conducted within the International Settlement proper. These three men, with the wounded suspect, were the only members of the band in the custody of the Settlement Police last night as the Japanese authorities would not hand the others over. The reason for this attitude on ihe part of the Japanese had not been explained at a late hour. It was felt in Council circles that the retention of the five men and three women by the Japanese gendarmes seriously hampered the investigation and prejudiced the chances of the Police to arrest further members of the important gaul It was strongly suspected last night
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