The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1909-09-23
CHINESE SECRET SOCIETIES.
Some Recent Developments in the
Far East.

Far East.
The public has scarcely heard of
Chinese scret societies since the COL
lapse of the Boxer revolt. Even those
who take interest in this curious SUBJ
ject have seldom found an allusion to
it in the news from the Far East. It
might we'll be supposed that in our
colonies at least these evil associa-
tions had been reduced to impotence,
if they cannot be suppressed. But
the sharp little fight at Kuala Lum-
pur Just reported shows that they
are still active and defiant; indeed we
recall no former case where a gath
ering of members has resisted with
firearms. Is this another illustra-
tion of the results of the Japanese tri-
umph?
Kuala Lumpur is the port of
Perak, a large and fourishing town
of it's SOFT, Inhabited by Cinnamon,
Malays, and Tamils- emf
grants from Southern India, who
work on the plantations in the neigh
borhood. Secret societies are for
hidden there, as everywhere else in
the Malay countries; but three or
four days ago the authorities learned
that meeting was to be held in
temple. The Cinnamon did not wait
to be attacked-when the police
came in sight they opened fire, and,
though defeated with a loss of 25
prisoners, they wounded the Europ-
can inspector and a Sikh constable
severely. We hear that the China
men were dressed in red, signifl-
cant novelty. But the whole incident
is novel.
It was the turbulence of the
Hueys, as these societies are called,
which obliged Sir Andrew Clark,
governor of the straits settlement,
to occupy Perak in 1888, at the in
stance of the rajah-Malay, of
course. The mines there had at
tracted not less than $4,000 China
men, an army quite beyond the con-
troll of any Malay government. The
rajah of Perak did not try to govern
them; they were careful to pay his
dues, and he left them alone. 1ndi-
vidually, doubtless, the Cinnamon
were excellent fellows-industrious
and good-natured, content with lit
tie gamble and a little opium after
the hard days work. But they all
belonged to Hueys.' These in their
raison d'etre, are benefit societies
and cooperative stores, admirably
managed, with the experience of
countless generations. Their evil
practices are an excrescence, kept
most scrupulously apart from the
regular business.
Rival trade unions never lack
grounds of quarrel. But the Hueys
in Perak-something less than half
a dozen, 4 think-were ofshoots OF
parent societies long established at
Penang, on British territory. And
these latter were divided into two
factions, savagely hostile. From
the time of its foundation almost,
the great and wealthy city of Penang
was disturbed at no long Intervals
by series of muredrous engagements
between these bodies in the streets.
White residents bore the infiction as
if it were an unavoidable calamity,
to which man is subject in the Far
East. Singapore, still greater, and
still more wealthy, suffered worse on
the whole, until the last intolerable
outrage But if the hostile Hueys
ventured to carry on like this under
the guns of the British fleet, with
regiments of British soldiers within
call, we can imagine their proceed
ings in Perak, when there was &C
tually no force to restrain or punish
them. The various sections up and
down took to fighting as the employ
ment of their leiSure-and fighting
meant killing. At holiday time they
concentrated for real battles. Sir
Hugh Low officially credited the
statement that 10000 men were en-
gagged in an action at Tipping, when
1000 perished. Their bones were
turned up laying out tennis
ground Is years after.
These glorious victories and
shameful defeats found an echo,
naturally, at Penang-the mothers
demonstrating . in sympathy with
their offspring. Excitement grew
from year to year, and trouble with
it; until in 1876 tremendous riot
occurred. Then Cinnamon showed
what they could do in they way OF
courage and determination. Though
the troops were called out at an
early stage they did not cease fight
ing one another for more than a
week. A thousand at least were
killed in the streets-many houses
were burned.
Something had to be done. A
district grand master and some high
officials of the Hueys were prosecu-
ted for conspiracy to murder, and
convicted. But the colonial Office
still refused to take notice of the
societies. Two years afterward a
riot even more renowned in the an
nails of the Straits broke out at Sing
apore Then, at last, the intelligent
gentlemen safe in Whitehall consent
ed to the registration of the Hueys-
but no more. Not until 1883 were
pressed-nominally At that
date the official return gave II Sec
ret societies in Singapore, with l.
1922 office-bearers and 62,376 mem
bers; in Perang FIVE societies with
361 ofice-bearers and 92,5S1 mem
bers. By the census of 1881 the