Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-09-15
Chinese Kidnapping
Fought by Outsiders

washington, Sept. IA - (AP) -
Nearly twelve years of organized eff.
fort to stamp out kidnapping in China
has served only to disclose that fan
greater exertions are necessary If this
particular form of slavery is to be
done away with.
The situation has prompted the
Chinese who organized in Shanghai
in 1912 the kidnapping Society
of China, through which nearly 1900
women and children victims have
been rescued from their captors, to
launch a campaign abroad for help in
the task. Joseph j. keegan Of Shang-
hal, the Special Foreign Commission
er OF the society, has placed before
the State Department a plan to raise
a>fur1 for $5.000,000 for extension of
the crusade against kidnappers. The
move Will be called to official atten-
ton also in London and Paris. al
though It Is through the aid Of pri-
waite citizens that the project is to be
carried out.
Chinese kidnappers not only seize
women and girls in the larger cities
and ship them to far corners Of the
vast country to be sold to brothe.
keepers. but prey also on the religious
desire of well-to-do Chinese to leave
behind them sons to worship at their
tombs and those Of their ancestors.
Where wealthy man without a son
of his own so desires, Chinese law
permits him to adopt a boy to be
reared as his own son and religious
custom makes ancestor worship by
such an adopted son as acceptable as
though the boy were the blood de-
scendant of the father. The kidnap-
ping organizations seize upon this
fact to send representatives to a
wealthy man who has no son and in
terest him in tales of a boy of fine
qualities and who could be adopted
provided the debts of the deceased
father also Were taken over. When
deal has been made on this basis,
youngster of the right age Is kid
mapped on the streets and palmed off
on the victim of the scheme.
Boys also are kidnapped for sale
into labor slavery. Recently in
Shanghai the police Of the French
settlement discovered more than 90
kidnapped native boys ranged in age
from IL to Is years.
The anti-kidnapping society MAIN
tains special force of agents to hunt
out kidnapping bands and cooperate
with the police. OF the victims res
cued. however, 1t has been possible to
find parents or relatives of only a few
and the society now maintains an in
dustrial training school at Kiangwan
where more than SEQ are being edu-
Gated and equipped to take care of
themselves. The cost of the work has
reached a figure of about $4,000 an
nually and the drain upon the purses
of the Chinese who originated the
rescue work has compelled them for
the first time to seek help outside of
China. Mr.. Keegan was sent to lay
the facts before number of wealthy
men Of philanthropic instincts here
and in Europe.
Throughout China, but particular
ly IN the central and southern prov
inces, Is spread a vast, loosely knit
organization Of kidnappers who ply
their terrible trade to an increased
extent as the years pass, with a thor
ough contempt for provincial officials
or police. in the present disorganized
state of the country" Mr.. Keegan
explained. 1.-THE number of kidnap-
ping crimes committed during year
in China is difficult to estimate, but
is we'll over fifty thousand.
There is always ready market,
albeit an Underground one, for boys
and girls suitable for sale into slav-
cry, and pitiable is the life of druid
gerry they are condemned to. More
mature girls and young women are
sold into what might be termed vel
low slavery In all cases rescue is
difficult particularly as the abductors
or ktdnappers seldom attempt to mar
ket their catch near their field Of
operations and generally take the
victims to a distant city"