The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-11-17
HIGHBINDER WARS IN CHINA
TOWN.

The San Francisco Chronicle of Mon
day contains an article telling of
prospective war in Chinatown. The ar
ticle is in part as follows:
Chinatown is apparently on the verge
of another outbreak similar to the one
that terminated in the murder OF Lit
tie Pete" Within a, week two of the
leading members of the See Yup COM
pany have received letters warning
them that unless they divide with their
fellow members sum of money said
to have been received from the Sam
Yup society, in consideration of call
ing off the old boycott, death would be
their lot
The two men so marked are Lee King
Chow of Wah Yune, Lung Kee & Co.,
T39 Commercial street, and Chan Mon
Wal of Woo On Lai company, 742 Sac
ramento street. While both men out
wardly profess to have no fears re-
garddng their personal safety, they are
taking more than the usual precautions
to insure their personal safety.
Since the advent of Vice Consul Ho
Vow, who came here a. few weeks ago
as the personal representative of Min
lister WI Ting Fang, efforts have been
made to settle the differences between
the See Yup and Sam Yup factions. On
might IL CDl.lSl Slb-C ldSS1II9 UNI
til long after midnight was held. Ching
Yen Heong, consul general, and Vice
Consul Ho Vow met the leading men
of the See Yup society and Merchants
association, and the whole difference
between the two rival companies was
gone over.
Ho laid down the edict that the min
lister had instructed him to deliver a
message to the See Yups, commanding
10 i=h TO he afPos
that the boycott had ceased and that
the members Of that company could
trade at any Store they might wish.
The See Yups declined to do this, and
an alternative proposition was sub
mitFed. This was that the seventeen
rlen who were arrested in China at the
instance of the former consul general,
through Minister Yang Yu, should
unite in a proclamation to the same eff
feet. Some Of the men are now in this
city and the remainder are yet in
China
Every effort has been made by the
Chinese government to settle this dis
pute through its local representatives
Threats have been issued that these
who were once in the tolls and whose
property was coniiscated, will again be
treated in the same way, unless they
unite in some such proclamation.
These highlander wars in Chinatown
more intimately concern the people of
San Francisco than anyone else, but
they are also a matter of concern to
the whole country, for they make it
plain that there exist in the chief CITY
of the Pacific coast organizations that
are not merely alien to the spirit of
our institutions, but which have indie
/ pendent governments of their own that
! set the laws of the state in which they
exist at defiance.
What a commentary upon American
/ institutions in California it is that the
disputes between two Chinese high
binder societies that occasionally go to
war with each other should be con-
! trolled from China. If threatening let
ters are being sent to any Chinese mer-
chants in San Francisco it is the duty
of the authorities of that city to as
| certain who are sending them and have
them arrested if possible for they are
violating the laws of California So
far as an outsider can see the policy of
the San Francisco authorities towards
the highbinders and their quarrels, ap-
pears to be to let them fight them out,
SO long as none but Chinese are killed
or wounded