Shanghai residents lying in the French Concession will breathe with relief today as a well-organized gang of pickpockets having a club of their own in a Concession hotel has just been rounded up by the French police. Twenty-six suspects several of them women, have been arrested and brought before the Second Special District Court where they are being detained. Many of them have previous convictions and the hearing is to take place on January The suspects were arrested four days ape in a hotel at 431 Rue Hoppo where they. established their headquarters. Two rooms of the hotel were converted into their club where gambling and morphine and opium Smoking were in order. The men were in the habit of spending their leisure hours at their club late in the evening taking the opportunity of exchanging information regarding their work, Most of them were said to be experts in pickpocketing in buses and tramcars where wallets disappeared usually from Chinese men wearing cotton-lined long gowns. It was also revealed in court that most of them formerly operated in the Chinese territory but that since the hostilities they entered into foreign settlements where they have victimized numerous persons.
Saveral gambling sets and some gambling money were seized by the police but it was not re?aled whether or not some of the stolen articles had been recovered. will be accommodated, they said.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.