CHINESE PIRATES.

Evening Star, Issue 21753, 22 June 1934, Page 8

CHINESE PIRATES.

It would bo strange if, after the hundreds probably thousands —of years that it has lasted, piracy had been exterminated in the Chinese seas. Half a dozen years ago it seemed that that might have been so, but it was only' one nest that was cleaned out. The Chinese have invented a method of piracy that would be as safe as their warfare or their land brigandage for those taking part in it but for one disadvantage. It is liable to bring them into direct conflict with the punitive forces of foreign Powers who are far more efficient than their own Government in dealing with disturbers of the peace. The pirates mark down a vessel which they have reason to suppose will give valuable booty, and they board it as simple passengers —revolvers bidden under their clothes. After the land has been left, at a given signal the engine room, officers, and, where it exists, first of all the wireless room, arc held up, and within a few minutes the ship is captured, often without a shot being fired. If none of the marauders are equal to the task, the officers are compelled at the pistol’s point to navigate the vessel to a remote creek or bay, where the pirates have their base. The vessel is looted, and real passengers not infrequently held for ransom. Canton waters were, till a few years ago, the chief theatre for these -depredations. The Cantonese Government was quite powerless to restrain them. Possibly, while their chief victims were foreigners, it had small wish to do so. The headquarters of the pirates were a group of villages at -the head of a secluded inlet known as Bias Bay, forty-five miles from Hongkong. The area was a no-man’s land, subject to no definite jurisdiction, and the unsocial propensities of its inhabitants were confined strictly to the sea. The Cantonese Government invited the British Government to station a warship permanently off Bias Bay to deal with a menace it could not repress. The British Government did so, and, after much provocation, a British naval force was landed at two of the villages on the inlet which destroyed all the houses, injuring nothing besides. When piracies still continued more houses were destroyed, in spite of protests from the Cantonese Government, and, except perhaps for a few isolated outrages, that was the last of piracy from Bias Bay. The old tactics have been resumed now further north. The hold-up of a British coastal steamer at the mouth of the Hoang-ho is described as the “ most daring act of its kind in this part of the world.” It was a rich haul. The loot—from passengers, not from cargo—was sufficient to fill five junks. The passengers were not nobodies. They included a British consul-general, a former Chinese Minister of the Interior, a police commissioner, and a Japanese. With a moderation or a prudence seldom shown by land brigands, all the foreigners, after some suggestion of using them as hostages, were released. Twenty Chinese are being held for ransom by the pirates, who have made off among the hills. An international crisis probably has been averted by their release of the Japanese. But the pirates have made more active enemies probably by this outrage than they counted on. A British destroyer and a British aircraft carrier, with Chinese warships, have been watching the coast. British aeroplanes have been following the miscreants inland, where Chinese troops are seeking to cut them off. ‘‘ The most intensive pirate hunt in the history of China is now progressing ” by air and sea and land. Whether or not these transgressors are captured it will probably be a long time yet before piracy in Chinese waters is put down completely. China has not only a weak Government, as proud as it is helpless, and therefore indisposed to welcome long the assistance of others in keeping order. It has a long coast.