At the end of the second day the Japanese warship came nearer and a party of bluejackets were sent aboard the Sin Hwa in a motor boat. When the pirates saw the boot approach, they stopped their work and, board: ing their own craft went away. Before leaving, however, they took several Chinese merchants with them, These, it was understood, would be held for ransom, The pirates used Japanese flags on their craft and this explained the complete unpreparedness of the crew fof the Sin Hwa to offer any resistance to the marauders, as it was thought at the time that the ship was beng stopped for examination.
The company reported the case to the British authorities here on. the ship's return to Shanghai yesterday, fand investigations are under way.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.