BANDITRY IN CHINA

Evening Star, Issue 22149, 2 October 1935, Page 15

BANDITRY IN CHINA

ITS CAUSE AND LURE China’s reputation in the eyes of the outside world seems to lie largely in the hands of her bandits. The news that another foreigner has fallen a victim to their toils will only intensify the belief commonly held that inland China is a queer mixture of bandits. Communists, and war lords constantly contesting against a lurid background of flood, drought, and famine (writes “ J.H.K.” in the Melbourne ‘ Argus ’). While it is almost inevitable that startling episodes in which foreigners are concerned should form a large proportion of the news'* from China, it would bo about as fair to judge the country by those reports as it would be to judge the United States by the kidnappers of Chicago, or to blame the whole of Australia for a riot in North Queensland. Inland China, by barriers of treaties, communications, and language, will always remain terra incognita to the very large majority of travellers who receive their passing impressions from the decaying glories of Peking, the crowded tangle of Shanghai, or the well-ordered streets of Hongkong. It needs little imagination or experience to perceive that the primary cause of banditry in China, ■as elsewhere, is economic. “ You are the real patriots,” I said to a Chinese soldier one day. “ You regular soldiers fight, only for tho good of your country.” He smiled rather grimly. “In the last analysis,” he said, “ with most of ns it is just a question of the ‘ food-bowl.’ ” The ordinary .Chinese farmer has a sufficiency of food and clothing in normal times for the needs of his large family, but has little or no reserves, and one or two bad seasons will bring them all to tho verge of destitution and semistarvation. _ And why should Fanner Chang see his family reduced to penury when ho knows that Landlord Li in the next village lias more than he knows what to do with? SOLDIER TO BANDIT, These little episodes, which might have happened anywhere at any time, were aggravated a hundredfold by the aftermath of the civil wars which tore the country in pieces and flung thousands of partly trained ruffians loose over the length and breadth of China. Having learned something of the gentle art of war the transition from soldier to bandit was simplicity itself with rifle and bullets nil ready to hand, and ho who fought his country’s battles in the daytime would quite likely turn aside at night to plunder tho neighbourhood. These bandit groups, led perhaps by some former officer, once broken adrift from the regular army would increase in size like a snowball running down hill with recruits from tho villages ami towns, for the obvious reason that if they could not make much money tliomsekves they might at least, by being on the “ inside,”. save their own homes ■ from destruction.- A wealthy town some 15 miles from where we were living _ in the province of Honan was broken into ami occupied by a few hundred desperate men. ’Within a few weeks so many men and bovs from the surrounding V

districts had crowded in to join them that a conservative estimate placed their numbers in excess of 5,000, An army sent to deal with the situation broke into the town at the second attempt, and being'unable to differentiate true from false put everyone to the sword. Tales even more gruesome could be told, but it is well to understand that desperate ills demand a desperate remedy, and that the appalling cruelties practised by the hardened desperado are sufficient justification for severe penalties. In addition to the causes mentioned above, a third factor has been introduced by the determined attempts made in recent years to “ sovietise ” the Chinese Republic. During the troublous times of 1927 a Soviet Government, headed by the Russian Borodin, was established at Hankow, in Central, China. Fortunately the National Government centred at Nanking eventually crushed this attempt, bitt the poison had been introduced into the veins of young Chinn, and has not yet spent its force. It is a relief to turn from this sad story of plunder and rapine to consider the steps taken to deal with this menace to security and peace. On the principle that force' must be met and overcome hv superior force the first essential must bo a powerful, well equipped, well disciplined, and loyal national army. Only too often in the past the ill-clad and poorly-equipped troops sent out Face contented themselves with shepherding the bandit detachments from ode district to another, content to preserve their own skins, or to make a little quiet profit by trading their arms and ammunition with the people they were sent to suppress. To General Chiang Kai-shek much of the success is due for the esprit de corps now manifest in., tho troops under his command, and for the skill with which his campaigns have been conducted. DRIVING OUT THE REDS. But it was soon evident that in the mountainous, out-of-the-way districts in 1 which the bandit armies delight to carry on their guerilla warfare the bestequipped armies were immobile and useless without good communications. Herein lies the secret of the recent extermination of the Soviet armies which had existed for years in the south of Kiangsi Province (less than 200 miles north of Canton); old roads were reconditioned, new roads were made, and a cordon of troops was thrown round the Red strongholds until their armies were starved into submission. Unfortunately. the cordon of surrounding troops Was not complete, and when a final attack was made a large number of bandit troops escaped, and, like hornets whose nest had been smashed with a sledge haninier, they scattered over ■ the country wreaking vengeance on every district visited. A young missionary couple were caught and killed, two other couples were captured in another province (after nine months the two men, are still in captivity in North-west Hunan), while a number of others have had narrow escapes .from sudden capture, and a few mission stations have been temporarily evacuated, . The mere defeat of bandit armies is insufficient as a guarantee, for the future, and has had to go hand in hand with a process of education and rehabilitation. Former bandit soldiers who show signs of true “ renentanee ” are receiving elementary technical edu-

cation as fanners, cobblers, tinsmiths, and the like, while still under detention in the hope (which has had ample justification) that when’ the time of their release comes they will become honest citizens again. Districts formerly overrun by the Communists have been rehabilitated, model villages have been built here and there, and the poor people, released from oppression akin to slavery, have been glad to embrace better methods of livelihood. _ General Chiang Kai-shek and his wife • have recently launched a new life movement to teach the younger generation some of the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. It is here that the work of Christian missions is able to exert a powerful influence by insisting upon the force of the golden rule rather than the rule of force, by proving that out of the worst material can be made law-abiding citizens, and by helping to create a public opinion opposed to civil war and banditry. ’ MILITARY OFFICER EXECUTED. The following Reuter’s message front Canton appeared in the ‘ North-Chin* Herald * of June 26; A great sensation was caused her* with the execution of General Tsai Teng-hui, commander of the anti-piracy forces in the Bias Bay area, and hi* chief-of-staff, Yang Chi-hsuan. . The two officers, who were stated to have been in secret possession of a vast quantity of arms and ammunition, were put to death on orders from the general headquarters of the Kwangtung armies. General Tsai, who formerly was in command of a division in the Kwangtung army, is alleged to have given assistance to pirates, with the collusion , of the chief-of-staff. The two officers both were natives of the Waiyang dist;** t. where the gang which pirated .the s.s. Tungchon* landed and escaped.