INDIAN THIEVES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1185, 13 December 1883, Page 3

INDIAN THIEVES.

The adroitness of the Hindoo burglars is almost proverbial. A correspondent of the Afadras Mail raises a loud wail from tbe Cochin district, where nothing seems secure from these export thieves. He says : Mr Fergusson, Sup*tintendent of the Travancore Police, landed at Cochin, and being a strapper to the place put up at the Traveller*' Bingalow. Thieves are always on the rampage at Cochin, and they are do respectors of persons. Who is a superintendent of police to a Cochin thief ] In gaol, a Gurdian; in the Travellers* Bungalow, which has been periodically robbed like every other dwelling at Cochin for years past, only another victim on which to keop in praclice his predatory habits. At 10.30 p.m. the loading protector of the public j.eace in Travancore reposes peacefully in a room of the Travellers' Bungalow, Who dare approach 1 A revolver is under his pillow, a light is in the bungalow, and at hi? bedside a chair on whicl is a box of matches. Under his bed is » box containing what is most valuable t," the slumborer. The night is not fa spent, only far enough to admit of anothef attempt to show the Cochin thief's agility. Quietly he enters the bungalow. Ha may h«ve drugged his patient, for he is so sure of his game that he goes deliberately to tl.e chair by the bedside and takes the box of matches. Whether he lights a match in the room or not is not stated ; but he succeeds in taking away the box from under the bed, another box more convenient'y placed, and the very clothes that his victim had but so recently takon off. The boxes are well examined, what is valuable ; n them is abstracted, and the clothes, which are considered of no value, after a chain at the bottom of the trousers has been taken off, because it looked like silver, are thrown out in the compound along with the boots and spurs. Not a sound is heard ! The robbery is as complete as many others which are bo frequently alluded to by similar sufferers, all resident at Cochin, without the slightest hope of safety. Strange, but too true! Tn a civilised town, under British Government where taxes are regularly demanded and paid, where justices of the peace, about five in number, a magistrate or deputy, magistrate, an inspector of police, and a body of police do dwell, robberies continually occur without delection, and there is difficulty in finding a European in the place who has not been mbbed, and disgusted with the mortification of !c:iowing tluithe has no remedy. Within •v month or two a re-'d j nt. was r«>hhe<l of jewellery worth n'mut By tlie 4ren>tous effoits of the po'ic ■, « c.s<- was made out two of his n*rv>mts, who were sentenced to 18 m< ntbV 'm oris'inment. Of conrsp, ns u«ua', Mie oropertv stolen was not recovered. The orikionerß rpm<>v»d to the Centra 1 , Gaol. They appealed to tie Diatric" Judge ttt Calicut, and they are now re-1

ported to be out on buil. Can nothint; be done for this unfortr.mro livle fetation? The police have recently been reorganised, tie old inspector removed, and a smart man put in his place, but still there is the cry for robbers. The tahsilder was robbed the other day in Native Cochin, but he uttered no bad words ; hefeltsio ashamed, and thought so much of his indignation, that he suffered his loss in silence. Th« reverend schoolmaster at Ernacolum has had the chairs stolen out of ids sittingroom. What can bo done? These robberies will lead to murder, if not chocked. In self-preservation the tesidents at Cochin will be obliged to take the law into their own hand?, lay traps for the thieves and shoot them.