To the Editor of the "Norrs-Citva Dany News"
Sm—I wish to draw, through the medium of your columns, the attention of the police authorities to the bold extortion daily occurring in the public thoroughfares of the Settlement, Every morning at about 7 o'clock while passing the corner of Honan and Tientsin Roads on my way to the G.P.O. I notice two or three obsolete hire cars parked there, the operators of which employ a gang of loafers who post themselves at the strategic points on the lookout for Victims. When a person riding in a rickshaw with a travelling case, a parcel, and other personal belongings bound for North Station for return trip to his or her home in the devastated area comes within sight, these loafers rush at their prey, stop the rickshaw, force the occupant out of it, push him or her into the waiting car, and exact as much fare as they can from the helpless victim for the "service volunteered." When the car is loaded to its full capacity with these terrified people huddled together like the proverbial sardines, it speeds away to the railway station. may be recalled that sometime ago the local vernacular paper "Shun Pao" gave wide publicity to the illegal operation described in the foregoing lines, and I wonder that the matter has so far not yet received the attention of the police authorities. However, I hope that this letter will not pass unheeded and that our police force, hard-pressed as they are at present, will take immediate and effective steps to put an end to it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.