KIDNAPPING IN CHINA

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 79

KIDNAPPING IN CHINA

THE DANGER OF BEING WEALTHY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) FOOCHOW, April 21. The second floor of the Burlington Hotel, on Bubbling Well road, Shanghai, is given over entirely to a very interesting family. The father, a genial old gentleman, is reported to have amassed an enormous fortune as an official in the far distant province of Szechuen. The windows and doors of the apartment are securely barred against all intruders, and the exyofficial does not move around his own suite without two armed guards in attendance. The Russian, governess, obviously from the old aristocracy of Russia, sits at the head of a long table with six stalwart song of the household. The very butlers that wait upon them are armed against any treachery from within or without. No member of the household has ventured out on the street for over three years, and supposedly it is impossible for them to leave town with their family and fortune intact. Every afternoon the six sons may be seen in the court below taking their exercise behind carefully guarded bars, and under the eyes of their vigilant highly paid loyal guards. Some say they fear political enemies created during the term of office in Szechuen, but it is more likely that the real danger lies in the constant prowling gangs of kidnappers who have within recent years held so many wealthy Chinese for ransom in Shanghai. Without favour or prejudice these kidnappers take men, and occasionally women, from their own homes, from shops and offices, or from their automobiles on main thoroughfares. The victims are pledged to. silence, and those who inform the police or their friends are severely, dealt with, and kidnapped again and again. Those who keep their pledges are immune from further attacks. Those who appear to know something about the ways of kidnappers say that eventually they will capture one or more members of this imprisoned family and draw heavily upon their guarded fortune. The International Police of Shanghai has employed the most modern methods and weapons against the kidnapping gangs, many of whom have been brought to justice. The menace, however, continues, and often right under the shadow of police offices, and in the best of residential districts. Shanghai, the Queen of the Orient, is still attractive enough to large numbers of retired merchants and officials to cause them to take a chance on being held for ransom. The other day, driving along toward the bridge of 10,000 ages in a bus, I noticed an execution squad with their victim in a ricksha. As this was rather unusual in these days of firing squads, I decided to investigate. Without ceremony or delay, a young-looking man in his early thirties, with his hands tied behind his back, and kneeling on the sand beside the river, paid the penalty of his crime. With one stroke of the executioner’s broad sword his head rolled from his body in the presence of as large a crowd of spectators as could discover what was taking place.

The following day I noticed his head, enclosed in a specially constructed wooden frame, nailed to a telegraph pole at the southern entrance to the bridge. There is probably no more central place in Foochow. Once again this unusual publicity peeked my curiosity. It appears that a cousin of the criminal, a wealthy merchant from Shanghai, while visiting in Foochow was captured and held for ransom by four young men on the outskirts of the city. Apparently these four youthful adventurers had heard of the many cases of successful kidnapping in Shanghai and decided to initiate the vicious system in Foochow. Fortunately for the citizens of this city, the captured merchant’s friends got word to the detectives, and within a very short time the four young criminals were condemned to death. Two were shot, one was executed on the sands beside the public ferry, and the other was executed in the district where the merchant was being held for ransom. With one head on exhibition in the city, and one on a' pole near the scene of the crime, all would-be kidnappers will think twice before attempting to get rich overnight at the expense of wealthy merchants who happen to be visiting Foochow.