New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1923-05-25
FIR. sweeney TELLS
OF CHINA'S BANDITS
New Britain Priest Says LaWless'
ness Is Increasing Rapidly
AUTHORITIES pOWERLESS
noys Gladly Throw Away Utensils In
Rice Fields and March Away ta
Easy life ~ Brigandage Ia Escsn"
farm Tabor,

arm iahnf'
Chinese handitry which for mans
months has crippled internal com
msree and threatened law and ordel
IN the Orient and which recently ere
ated worldwide interest by the TAX
Ing and holding for ransom OF a trio
of Americans, IN discussed In n letter
which has been received from Rev
Joseph T.. Sweeney. the only Local
man now working IN the Catholic
mission fields Of China, Father
sweeney the son OF Mr., and Mrs
Joseph T.. Sweeney of Clark street, Is
nj Tungchen. suny Hwangtnng
China.
Bandits Increasing,
Discussing banditry in the lnnd,
Father Sweeney has the following Ia
say:
Soldiers and bandits arc much
freer now TO work their sweet will
than ever. They have interrupted
commerce between here and tho s"a
are taxing the country for wages am
food and increasing in numbers.
"Anync can organize n troop o.
soldiers and as lieutenant lead his
detachment 10 enlistment in the army
for easy wages and food. So just now
when people in this district are re-
duced 10 diet of rice grnel and
sometimes nothing but roots Of shrubs
which arc poisonous II eateu IN large
quantities, and Just when the season
for rice planting is here. the young
sters are leaving the farms TO enlist
IN great numbers with the army. Once
they fall into the easy life and go
around with the dignity and superior
power that Il gun gives them, these
boys will find il easier TO become ban
dts than to return to sweat in the
rice fields. With all the seats OF
local government open as bones Of
contertion between the different par
ties Or factions, there is less order in
the patriarchal villages and hamlets. .
Bandits Shoot Woman.
"As an instance; Four days ago !
received n sick call II Or 10 miles
into the mountains. ! rushed off OF
foot and after three hours or so came
exhausted to the house stuck on the
steep side Of a mountain. The wom
an WHO sent for me had died the hour
before. She was shot through the
lung by local bandits the night be-
fore They had come to rob the house
and smashing in the door shot the
woman They were beaten away by
mcn in the house,
"The bandits were the woman's
living about half a mile
To.
fll tillers Of the fields; at night they .
prowl about pilagine other farmers,
Now the family knew all this but
they seemed afraid to tell me who
the robbers We're. The woman's son {
who ran into the mission for me said 6
he passed them working in their {
fields on his journey down. Evidently
ne robbers were y powerful clan and {
" 'le an American family. in the alb I
seuce of police. would have gone down t
to man to aNenge the lead wife '
and mother these poor people We're s
i fraid Of the guns Of the robbers and 8
ire saving their face by merely offer I
ing a reward for the murderer,
Tragedies Not Uncommon. =,
Under the present conditions such ,
ra sedies as these are not uncommon 4,
n China. Not that the Chinese are !.
more criminal than other races, for 7 .
hink they are one Of the most peace ,
nj people on earth, but the country is =
upset. the police and law are not c
and the militant politi +
'ians in whose hands are modern guns T.
md fnan extorted by them, are ),
making IN a land devoted TO peace, ,
'haos for their own misern bio anohi- r.
ions" a