| Show CHINESE PIRATES OPENLY DEFY LAW trade a flourishing one in eastern waters the fin line e 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 spanish slain alain but the principle la Is exactly the same blood Is spilled ships are captured by the dozens and hundreds of captives carried off for ransom in ninny many respects the chinese buccaneer Is a more crafty more cold blooded individual than the captain kidds of yore afraid of nothing except possibly a bath he pursues his big calling with methodical boldness bolanes s and today us as centuries aso ago spreads spread terror and death among the ships plang pi ing the south china bias bay about 65 miles from Hong honebon Ho kong almost within the range of british guns gong Is the stronghold of the pirate gangs almost continual warfare has been conducted against them for five decades but they still carry on erasing battleships and submarines even airplanes they sally forth in their little junks seize a merchantman kidnap a few chinese and return to their base where they appear to live the lives of simple and harmless fl fishermen shermen in the last ten years an average of three foreign ships a year have been pirated in bias bay territory now 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 aas 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 posing as passengers passenger the danger would be too great to risk staging an attack by the sea although that method proved effective in the days of sailing ships with supplies of arms and ammunition smuggled aboard and the ship well out at sen sea the pirates usually in the steerage atteck the crew at a given signal from the tender lender one group attacks the bridge and seizes the captain another the engine room while a R third cobers the passenger at pistols point and keeps thern them framl interfering j after the ship has ben capt captured ared 1 the pilot Is ordered to steer for al a point of land where comrades of the pirates lire are walt walling ng in the l time the passengers are robbed oi ot their valuables those to be taken captive lined up p on the deck ani and bound while the ships stores are r re lieveld of all articles that can bj be conveniently handled bandied the chief reason that piracy piracy 18 Is ILL allowed to continue in south china I 1 la that the british authorities are more 0 r or less powerless to conduct an ex tion on a big scale without infringing on chinese sovereign rights although the chinese authorities themselves have admitted their ini in i 1 ability to deal with the buccaneers bucca they have refused refund many times to co with the british in any efro efforts to punish the freebooters |
