The Washington times., 1923-06-28
BANDIT COMEDY
IS POPULAR
IN CHINA
Kidnapping Often Resorted To
BY Troops in Need of
Funds.
By ELSIE MCCORMICK.
Cosmopolitan News Service.


NEW YORK, June 28.-To most
Americans the capture Of the
tourists on the Peking Express and
their long detention afterward has
been as incomprehensible as the rules
OF Mah.jongg. With the Chinese
Government protesting, to the &C.
compartment of many low bows and
much language copied from the ETH
quette book. that 1t wouldn't have
anything happen to the captives for,
the world, the long tolerating Of the
situation on the part of Picking and
the exchange of polite letters with
the bandits is, to the spectator on
this side Of the Pacific, something
beyond his mental range.
1t is as If a number Of travellers
were taken from a train in Kansas
and held for weeks, while their cap
tors dickered with Washington on
the subject Of getting army commits
sionS.
To understand the bandit situation
in China, it is necessary to remem-
Der that the Picking Government has
as little to live on as a cat in Il
the Orient that a bandit is q soldier
three months behind in his pay, and
as the government is perpetually in
serious financial straits, soldiers
change into brigandS every time
there is a shortage in the trick cur
rency known as money in the Far
East. Often the transformation
form within to without the law does
not even include the diScarding OF
the uniform.
Largest Army In World.
The standing army Of China,
which is the largest in the world,
has an enrolment well over a
million. Some Of the soldiers are
employed by the Picking govern
ment, some by the opposing Canton
government, and others by various
provincial officials. All of these
powers are one jump ahead Of the
that the gray-clad, peanut, eating,
and baggy looking Individual who
passes for a soldier in China is al.
ways just on the verge of hunting
up the nearest Sherwood Forest and
turning himself into an Oriental
edition Of Robin Hood.
The Chinese are a patient people,
but when once the dragon turns, it
turns with force that rattles the
family idols in all the surrounding
provinces. Last summer, for
instance, the hungry soldiers Of the
middle Yangtze Valley suddenly set
fire to the city of Kuikiang and
threatened complete destruction if
the payroll were not met. A
frightened chamber of commerce
took up a hasty collection among
the surviving shops, and the
soldiers helped to put out the
flames.
Commissions Sought,
Despite the depleted condition Of !
the military treasury, army commits |
sions are still much sought after. |
The waxed-mustached and bemedaled |
gentlemen who rank above lieuten-
ant have opportunities for squeeze
too good for a man with any bust |
ness sense to overlook. Thus the |
leaders of the Suchow bandit party
are demanding army commissions |
as the price Of ransom. The pro-
cedure is by no means new. Polite |
kidnapping has long been a West |
Point substitute in the Chinese |
army. The Yunaan bandit who cap
tured the late DIR. Shelton was re-
warded with a colonel's commission |
in the governors forces. In fact, |
the famous song from ''Pinafore" |
might be revised to read:
He carried off the foreigners so |
skillfully |
He now has a post in the Picking |
army" |
Shantung Province, where the |
kidnapping occurred. has been a CEN
ter Of bandit activity for the past |
few years. Chinese officials used to |
complain that the lawbreakers fled |
after their depredations to the ter |
ritory under japanese protection |
and were then beyond capture. An |
island not far from Tsingtao was an |
especially notorious gathering place |
of Chinese brigands. Although |
these areas have now reverted to |
Peking, 1t will probably be impossi- |
BILE for China to restore order until |
she has funds to keep her soldiers
in rice, tea, ghost-money and water |