CHINESE JUSTICE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 161, 6 January 1912, Page 10 (Supplement)

CHINESE JUSTICE.

A GRIM TALE. A grim tale of some Chinese meting out justice to offenders lias been related to the London Standard by Mr. W. J. Murray, who lives in Hongkong. A few months ago Mr. Murray and ten obher Europeans undertook a. voyage in a Chinese junk to a village called YangTse, about forty miles from Hongkong. Night fell while they were stall some distance the village, and during the night the jank was surrounded by Chin. ese pirates and captured. After being robbed of all their valuables the Europeans were left to make their way to Yang-Tse as best they could. On aJ> rival they reported the robbery to the chief mandarin, who immediately sent out a large force of sodiers to secure the pirates. After a hot battle, in which nearly forty of the pirates were killed, f.wenty-four were captured and taken to Yang-Tse. They wore tried on the spot by the mandarin, who ordered them to be executed. Early next-morn-ing a bell was rung to summon all the inhabitants of the neighborhood, and wfcen they had gathered on the seashore the mandarin informed them that the pirates had been sentenced to death. The twenty-four prisoners were placed in a line before the crowd and handed over to the executioner. "As the executioner approached the first man," Mr. Hun-ay's narrative states, "he ordered him-to turn round and kneel on the sand, drawing a large double-edged sword.from hie belt at the same moment. At a nod from the mandarin he seized the man's pigtail .firmly in his left hand, and pulled the head forward After making a small luck as a sort of preliminary, the executioner gave the sword i a quick twirl, and the head was off." The process was repeated' until ail the prisoners had been decapitated, and Mr. Murray says the pirates did not flinch, although each shuddered perceptibly as the headsman made the preliminary "ndck" in the neck. After the execution the heads were ' placed on poles, to be looked' at for ten days, and the bodies were thrown into a pit. It is to be hoped that the awakened China will abandon such horrible barbarities.