SECRET SOCIETIES
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1938.
TERROR OF THE
FB.J. agents were shocked and baffled when in
1925 the hitherto law-abiding inhabitants of New York's". Chinatown suddenly went on a rampage of killing.
Bombs, guns, hatchets and knives were all used to deadly purpose. The terror spread to Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.
Chinese immigrants, who for Ter-tung to power. Many believe years had occupied themselves that these societies are still the with the gentle arts of their real power in China. ancient civiliantion, overnight became brutal killere.
For nonthe, undercover agents of the .B.1. tried to unravel the mystery.
They discovered that two tongs, or secret societies, which had inẞltrated into the States, were at war with each other.
Fu six months, fifty-six people were murdered.
The war was between the Hip 9ing Tong, consisting of work- ing-class Chinese, and the On Leongs Tong, ✡ society of merchants, bankers
and shop keepers
But the cause of it remains a Inystery to this day,
More than 500 Chinese were prrested in New York's thickly populated Chinatown, boundeil Jewish side by Cencicry and on the other by the Italian quarter.
Un
מט
В
had
But the Chinese maintained their strict code of silence.
Then, Just as suddenly as it had started, the war ended The tongs concerned agreed to observe two years.
On March 25, 1927, wer broke 110 days, again. Within
out
a
truce for
ten murders were reported. pour of them in the New York area.
Again, the police were helpless.
14
Tongs are as anceint the civilisation of the Land of the
The longa influence can be Judged from the fact that when Moo tried to rid China of their presenge 300,000 members of the "Flood Gate Tong" promptly offered their services to Chiang thoughts,
By-
TONGS
Rex Lawrence
rackets, the. A mild-looking, man, Loek operating various most lucrative of which was maintained a sullen silence from the time of his arrest to the opium smuggling.
moment of his execution.
The influence these tongs have among Chinese abroad was de-
It was widely believed that Kal-shek. Mao had second monstrates at Chester (England)
Assizes, when a boarding-house Lock was ordered to murder hts landlord, Lock Ah Tam, Euro- own family as punishment for These clana of dangerous pean head of the Kock Man breaking a tong law, bandits, optum smugglers, white Tong, was sentenced to death slavers, extortionists and black- mailers operate in strict secrecy, bound by a quasi-religious code.
For centuries, successive
country where the
to murdering his English wife goverments in Chin-and police and two small daughters.
Ip one of the strangest in every murder trials in story, Sir Chinese have suitled-have tried Tongs exist by intimidation. Edward Marshall-Hall, K.C., to suppress these` secret societies.
But the tones Hoe oT, Membership
is usually
com- falled in his defence of Lock- pulsory Anyone likely to be because the accused man refused useful received a letter bearing to speak. the tongs Bent, ordering him to present himself for Initiation.
I the candidate shows signs of reluctance, he is persunded by threats against his family.
Once a man has taken the oath, terror prevents him from breaking it.
Few outsidera have ever seen
an Initiation ceremony-and
THE END
TONG
ENVOY IN A CITY OF SPIES ... DYNAMITE IN THE CELLAR., BESIGNED IN A CIVIL HIS
Britannic Majesty's Ambas-
lived to tell about it. Any sador to the Court of uninitiated intruder is swiftly dispatched.
the Hellenes was enter-
The Initiation ceremony, com-taining the British
tongs, in a weird mon to most mixture of mediaeval magio rites Minister of State to din- and mumbo-jumbo, involving, ner. among other things blood drink. Ing.
Tony leaders usually prefer to remain in the background wher: They take crime is concerned, neut of the profits.
It was a gloomy affair.
Our embassy in Athens, famous for its cuisine and its splendour, was not liv- ing up to its reputation.
Down In the kitchens there was no rich fragrance of splen- did cooking. The ovens, were
Yellow Dragon, For centuries,
Tongs control the many beg-cold and only a tin-opener lay the home of China has been secret societies whose activities are guilds which collect annual on the table.
2,000
Jump
their end tea. by
the
Leeper,
WAR ... AND TRAPPED IN A BLAZING AIRPLANE
When Macmillan
nearly died.
back of the building for salety. the There was only one way to
at the
from Aums
merchants' Sir Reginald vary from the legitimate protec-associations. In exchange, they Ambassador, and Mir Harold leave the place and that was in/ Lion of trade to organised
promise to restrain their man-Macmillan,
Minister of tank or armoured cor. robbery.
from soliciting charity State, looked
Sr Reginald and Harold Mac- at each other Some have political ambitions bero
individually,
sadly
their over
one-course milan ate the last fakes of their tang known as the "Red
The countless guilds of thieves meal of corned beef, sipped at tasteless dinner and mournfully Eyebrow was active in a civil
are similarly organised by the their cups of tea, and speculated went on another patrol of the war in China more than
tomes For a modest premium, unhapply over the breakfars to embassy. They arrived years ago.
there guilds "Insurei clients come mort comed
beat cellers. Until the 19th century none
bgainst robbery societies was of these secret
members.00 Belive outside China. Bul, to- communities all day, Chinese
welded Age system. arc over
Membership often runs Into millions
"White The
Lotus Tong"
has
estimated 30,000,000 membership, spread over the whole world.
At Brst, this tog was con- certed with helping to the London's immigrants to set up businesses,
the world together by tongs.
Eset tong has its own esp Walls pitted
Din
The embassy was bentcged. Athens had been liberated end the Germans
rich city.
of
the last Ambassador to Greece before the Gormans bad marched in.
but
Oyes
Macmillan's Harold driven out brightened. "Knock the wall but there WILE no peace in the down," he insisted,
Reginald stopped him. "That The Greeks were at each wine is not Government pro- But later it developed others throats and right in the perty." he said. "It belongs to as much a into a gigantic illegal emigration front line of the violent civil my predecessor,"
to Singapore, these abroad.
From San Francisco West Indies, from Limehouse
suctetics are source enforcers
of anxiety
to law organization, supplying cheap war stood the embassy.
THIS MAN MACMILLAN (3)-
by Robert Glenton
Scourged
was to
know
hands on his appointment. 19 Prime Minister, Richard Austeri Butler, the people's choice, was out. Harold Macmillan, whom the people knew hardly at all, wwe in
the
other
front
altention The envoy
Although
Macmillan and his American onwards counterpart, kfuriated beyond nothing but triumph.
As Minister of Housing he was all measure, ripped a sheet of
success, As outstanding notepaper in Half, wrote on it an
"We undertake to do Chancellor of the Exchequer exactly as we are told..." The under the alling Sir Anthony. emissaries were eager to sign. Eaen it was obvious to the few So came about the Arst peace knowledgeable men that he had treaty with Italy.
become à man of considerable It was then that Macmillan "Power... But they were wrong. Mac- doing so. The negotiations in
Athens and into One of them, Harold Machian stayed. He stayed and volved much travelling. One moved into
Just how powerful was only millan noticed, was tricked up, he learned from his new master, hot, faded day he bearded an acute physical danger. He soon shown for the drst time when He asked why Sir Reginaki
aircraft to fly from Algiers to decided that it was important the telephone was picked up fa told him it was the wine cellar
Cairo.
even in the embassy, besieged as Buckingham Paleo and be w The engines thundered as it it was by civil war, to maintain summoned tó idas the Queen's Britain's armoury was empty billowed the dust behind it and prestige.
the officers who had been stand- of almost everything save cob-
ing so
rigidly at webs. In a fury of unceasing
turned to peek about slumped and energy Beaverbrook set Sir
shelfer from the heat. The incompetent,
And Suddenly, stocking
they paused
To the public every week the lazy, and the stupid were
their heads awung round. Just rooms of the building were brings a glimpse of a Fresh Those who scourged.
stayed 15ft. from the ground one of evacuated, he and the British facet of the tenant of Number were driven as tord 03 nuch
the engines of the Minister's Ambassador inalsted on using 10 Downing Street. nave ever been. Macmillan was
aircraft hesitated, stammered, the official study. To get to the and died.
desk they had to enter the room be the aircraft crash into the sand.
They were just in time to see by a side door and creep round the floor to reach their chairs, There was a sudden silence and just out of sight of lurking then the crackle of fire us flerce shipers.
Well, that monumental calm flames climbed
Alarmed visitors would be that surrounds him la a com thinly againat the African sky.
shown to the room to find the piete pretence. Underneath Ambassador and the Minister of bubbles a turbulence and inten→ State sitting Imperturbably at sity and an impetuosity. the desk surrounded by walls He has a temper but even that never explodes. Ho merely But the learning was not easy.
The two men were not always becomes extremely silent and Once as. Macmillan saw his
so calm. On one occasion as lonely, a sort of exalted sulk explosive Minister off to
they chatted, a bullet shrilled America be sighed with relief
through the window and spat gardening and shooting, and no He has no hobbles outside and said "Thank heaven. Now
tered the wall just two inches wish at all to retire. we con all go to bed for
Macmillan.
from Macmillan's hond,
Ho a hard and fast worker, change."
Inside the aircraft he was
They both stopped talking and but when a task on a speech is He might have got to bed, but trapped by the crumpled seats looked at each other, Then the completed he doesn't addle with the former ambassador'n cham- he didn't stay there long. Soon Half stamed, he could already Minister of State edged his it or try to improve. pagne. (Signed) Harold Mac- the trans-Atlantic calls were feel a new, violent heat. As he chair out of the line of fire and He can relax and forget. millan, Minister of Stata.” ringing out at four o'clock in the fumbled to unfasten his safety they resumed the conversation.
Even morC then it changed morning.
as they were thou- labour for its wealthy members. Already its walls were pitted Paid no heed
sands of years ago.
tongs are In modern times. credited with having aided Mao
In 1921 a Chinese secret and pocked by anivers' bullets. society made it presence felt in windows were broken, and the was staff had been moved to the Landon's East End,
It
The time-honoured
drink from Scotland
Clean and refreshing,
satisfying beyond compare, Scotch Whisky meets the need
of any occasion.
For entertaining it has
no equal. Make your
# choice "Black & White"
Scotch Whisky,
#HT OF RESPLANS
BLACK & WHITE
ALLERY DE
CICH DID SCOTCH WEISIT
BUCHANARY
અમુલ નામના
'BLACK&WHITE'
SCOTCH WHISKY
·"! BUCHANAN'S"
The Secret is in the Blending
Brink VYbilcs Dientera
JANSI BUCHANAN
CO.LTD.
betan buttende i Časak
ICOTLAND
BLASGOW
Sole Distributors: DODWELL & CO., LTD.
"Come with me," ordered the luture Prime Minister. Back upstairs they went, and there at the ambassador's desk he started to write.
A burst of automatic gun bullets struck the outside wall and whimpered through the air. But both men paid no herd as Macmillan wrote.
Smiling, he handed the sheet of paper to Sir Reginald, It read: "I have decided that in sleges It is permissible to drink
many other men, the last
war
profoundly tempered the char-
acter, of Harold Macmillan.
authority
one of the
His exquisite London clubs saw little of h' Instead,
snap in his voice, an got a in his actions. He was a good pupil. One day, as Minister of Housing, he was going to produce 300,000 homes almost as ruthlessly as Beaver- brook provided the country with aircraft and tanks.
key man
Trapped
The fire tenders and the am bulances skidded over the air field, but already they could see the occupants running to safety, All except one man ..... Harold
bell the aircraft was melting about him.
he
nalis and
He struggled to a window, ho
Frantically was jammed. Beaverbrook taught Macmillan clawed and fought. Air
When split and his fingers bled one fundamental truth:
ho tumbled to the ground just he crawled over the sand leaving 2 grotesque, scrambled trail in 10 the sand behind him,
Macmillan reached the fringe of safety as the fully laden fuel tanks of the aircraft exploded.
For the first three days be lay In his
In 1939 he was a lonely bàck- bencher in the House of Commons, a man of deep feel- ings, at loggerheads with the you prea men hard you must Government most of the time, have a supply of carrots as well in time. His drill suit charred, He YAS
clever, olinging as a whip.
Beaverbrook was as ready speaker. But words, not deeds, were his arsenal,
praise good work as he was to One man BAW in him more savage the bad. Macmillan has watched and heard and flair for fine.phrases. As #001-110ver. forgotten the example as Sir Winston Churchill formed that was set him.
than stotte frustration and a
delirium he begged for some- one to fell his dead mother that he was safe. He was in French hospital and he insisted on associating it with the ward he was in at Abbeville during the First World War.
lile Government, he appointed Number 10 Downing Street, in hospital unconscious Macmillon-his loyal supporter after all the anguishes and the of the past-to a Junior fob in storms of the past 20 yehra, bas a most vital department
never been
efficiently more the Ministry of Bupply.
tranquil than it is today under à to Prime Minister who scola reward as well as to liek.
From minor office in London Macmilian was suddenly to be come a key man
scored by bulleta.
portant envoy tomorrow.
What is he like at home?
Family man
Froes.
Ho in very much a family To his deak on Christmas Eve man. He is upasti he
to 1944 came a measage. It was home to find no one, there
But when they from Winston Churchilt and it welcome him. read: Am gending on Im are there he is not a noisy com- Have pardon. He prefers to sit and read, smoking his plp and trusted interpreter ready,"
Tho envoy turned out to be groping in his lap every dyn. Churchill, himself, in so air minutes for hit box of matches, held surrounded by hundreds of British
tho troops;
Prime Minister, Leeper, and Mnemlilan had an hour's conferenco,
“Watch him”
During the tail Churchill He cats well, and rarely showed he was very worried for-notices what it is. If Macmillan's safety, and con- is ever trapped and forced to cerned over his disregard of order a meal lio blankly astica danger. He told him to be for cold meat and salad. Careful.
Ha likes working in bed, visit- Macmillian smiled and retorted ing his clube, and talking; but The the conversation mast be abarp riegantly: "Why bother.
stimulating Practical food here is already killing and
me"
and joking, nolay laughter He uscu exactly the sine chatter impel him to get up and phrase two days later, when he walk away. walked into the Belilah Army He is a very good dancer Macmilian become assistant to
choosen to be. Ho three Ministers there... fer In 1942 there was crisis in
His work in Africa was not and discovered that some when ho
one had tried to blow him up doesn't really understand music bert Morrison, Sir Andrew Dun- the Mediterranean. It was vital
that North Africa should
be yet over. Next came the foltan by ning the cellar fall of but likes ballet. can, and Lord Beaverbrook
dynamite,
Ho a very good actor and/ "Throughout the time I was securel no a base, for our attack Pence Treaty.
The first meetings with secret
It can truthfully be mid that can translato himself into there," he has aid, "I never on Haly.
But do Gaulle and his men emissaries from Italy who had when all about him were losing situation extremely swiftly. Bo heard a word of English spoken,"
commands were in bitter conflict with the travelled all the way through their heads. Harold Macmillan eries rather easily when, he is
No English
Still secret
moved.
"
by tho robust French who had stayed in North Portrust to Gibraltar to meet Just Towt his appetite,
the Allies in North Africa were At the end of the war Ho le wear the clothes to hote
alive.
human
| All- ils master were' coloured Canadian accents of Lord Africa, Beaverbrook, the dour Scottish Churchill sent Macmillan to as wildly incredible as a novel. mrrived back in Britain con because he liked them when Ho tones of Sir Andrew, or the Algiers to deal with the situn. Many of the detalls are si tented, fulfilled, and sparkingly was a young man and has never
ton. He do him Ministers suceri. proud: cockney of Mr Morrison,
seen any reason to change. Harold One thing is not
ho is very But in the 1948 election, tho. In sit It was Lord Beaverbrook, so Resident thore. Harold Macmillan has since Macmillan did not rejoice at Macmillan's realisation of the voters of Stockton who had and understandable, save, in one
#dmired Item KA * talker thing clatived, who had the most pro- the prospect before him. He inflating burden of the eau- found effect on moulding him told tile friends that he wan llous and pedantic back at home, rejected him as "the new man Ito has possessed, all his life in the ways of authority,
being sent to a political Biberis. When the first Italian peace or action. He fost his seat by one indefinable, obvious quality", which in 1919 made a girl write There were many who li praš He was utterly wrong. With treaty won being egoitated 8,604 votes.
The Cervatives, noverilo to her cousin Lady Dorothy dicted that Beaverbrook, the his great reverve of sympathaile Whitehall and the U.B. State man of turbulent action, and understanding he patched up Departmentant lo North Afrim lews, and perhaps for the dist Cavendishi, his fiancee, "Wate the elegant Macmillan would the French quarrels and mado 40 pages of clauses, all of which time, regarded him as too good him. He will be Prime Minister
two extremely important friends must be understood, discussed, to lose, Id was sent to drom one day." mis about at well, as fire" and
ley, and in November the mme water,
...Eisenhower and de Geule, and agreed, first of altt. And there was no doubt as to Maimillan became a su Time and danger made. non- peer he won » by-election, there who would go out.
and he nearly lost hia 11te in fense of then, so bow day by 6,567 votas., Írzom Uml time
THE END