Armed Banditry in the Far Eastern Port lurid account of life in Shanghai—or rather of.the extensive underworld of that city—was given to the Huddersfield Rotarians at Whiteley's Cafe, states the Huddersfield "Examiner" recently by Mr. Champeny, retired from the Settlement Police about six years ago.
It was a most interesting address, though Mr, Champney did not give his audience much time to digest it as he went along, for he poured it forth in a sort of tornado of words. Rotarian George Beever, who moved the vote of thanks, humorously remarked that it was the nearest approach to a machine-gun that he had come across.
The title of the address was "Thirty Years in the Shanghai International Police Force" Mr. Champney described how Shanghai, the largest open treaty port in the Far East, was wonderfully protected against times of trouble. The city had its own currency, fluctuating twice daily on the world's market—(aughter)—and every nationality published its own newspaper.
How Shanghai is Protected The: port was governed by the world's Powers, and Mr. Champney rattled off the numbers of ships and men the Powers kept at hand in case of need; told of the block-houses that encircled the city, of the thousands of watchmen kept for the protection of property alone, of the special police of 2,400 business men, the river police 600 strong, and of the International Police 6,000 strong.
Shanghai, it would appear, is a centre of all forms of vice and rackets organized on a big scale. There is an organized armed banditry. Smuggling, motor Banatry, ex-tertian, the white and yellow slave traffic, gambling, opium smuggling, armed gun-running—all are organized. The bandits, the men at the head of the organizations live in magnificent houses, Mr. Champney said, with ivoried servants, and are to be seen in the best seats in the theatres, The speaker went on to say that the members of the S. M. Police were armed with automatics and machine-guns, and wore a bulletproof protection that covered all the vital parts of the body. Each nationality represented kept a fleet of armoured cars always in readiness for contingencies. In 1926 as many as 62 members of the force were wounded by armed criminals, and 104 criminals were shot dead by the police. When innocent persons were injured in machine-gun skirmishes in the streets they were compensated by the municipality.
The police escorted money all over the city, and even found a guard for the rent collector. (Laughter.) They guarded all churches and cinemas and dances where there were Europeans, and also protected the factories.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.