Show CHINESE PIRATES OPENLY DEFY LAW rade a flourishing one in eastern waters the fine art of buccaneering bucca as practiced by the sea wolves of south china may lack much of the romance and of the days of the span ish main but the principle Is exactly the same blood Is spilled ships are captured by the dozens and hundreds of captives carried oil for ransom in many respects the chinese buc caneer Is a more crafty more cold blooded individual than the captain kidds of yore afraid of nothing except possibly a bath he pursues his calling with methodical boldness and today as centuries ago spreads ter and death among the ships plying the south china seas bias bay about 05 miles from hongtong Hong kong almost within the range of british guns Is the stronghold of the pirate gangs almost continual warfare has been conducted against them for five decades but they still carry on braving battleships and submarines even airplanes they sally forth in their little junks seize a merchantman a few chinese and return to their base where they appear to live the lives of simple and harmless fishermen in the last ten years an average of three foreign ships a year have been pirated in bias bay territory how many chinese ships and junks have been seized is not known but it Is safe to presume that the total runs into three figures annually until recently little resistance was offered by the ships officers and piracy was considered by the chinese a fairly safe trade to follow in the case of foreign vessels all piracies pi are committed by men pos ing as passengers the danger would be too great to risk staging an attack by the sea although that method proved effective in the days of sail ing ships with supplies of arms and ammu mitlon smuggled aboard and the ship well out at sea the pirates usually in the steerage the crew at a given signal from the leader one group attacks the bridge and seizes the captain another the engine room while a third coers the passengers at pistols point and keeps them from interfering after the ship has been captured the pilot Is ordered to steer for a point of land where comrades of the pirates are waiting in the mean time the passengers are robbed of their valuables those to be taken captive lined up on the deck and bound while the ships stores are relieved of all articles that can be conveniently handled the chief reason that piracy Is al lowed to continue in south china la that the british authorities are more or less powerless to conduct an ex on a big scale without in fringing on chinese sovereign rights although the chinese authorities themselves have admitted their in ability to deal with the buccaneers bucca they have refused many times to co with the british in any effort to punish the freebooters |