CO129-425 - Governor Sir May - 1915 [10-12] — Page 739

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and the licensee and his son to the island of Wong Kam. The father was liberated and told to fetch 8300 for his son's ransom. The son

was finally ransomed at Wong Kam for $200.

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1

In the description of the robbers in this case

occurred that of a man with nalf a finger.

4.

On the 7th. of September last the same ging of salt smugglers mentioned in paragraph 2 raided the shop of the

owner of a salt pan at Castle Peak, New Territories, and carried

off 887 in cash and no less than 5 persons one an exployee and 4 casual visitors who happened to be on the premises, one of them

being a village school teacher in the employ of the Government.

These 5 persons were taken to Wong Kam and subsequently the

employee was sent back to arrange ransom for the remaining 4.

I happened to be in the district 3 days after

this outrage and the villagers, come of whom were personally known

to me, met me and asked for extra protection against robbers. I

promised to do my best to catch those who had attacked them and

enjoined upon them that they must not ransom the captured men but

act entirely on the advice of the Police. I also said I would

pay and arm & villagers of the district as village scoute to watch the sea-shore at night as I had done in some other districts

and that I had already offered a reward of $500 for the capture

of one or more of the robbers and £200 for information of the place the captured men had been taken to.

The return of the employee soon after left no doubt as to where the men were and the Captain Superintendent of Police was instructed by me to inform the Chief of the Chinese Police at Canton accordingly, leaving the latter to take what steps he thought fit in the matter.

5.

In the result the Chinese Authorities without

consulting the Portuguese Authorities seem to have decided to send a number of troops to arrest the robbers, and liberate those detained by them, in Wong Kam. Delay, however, unfortunately occurred in the despatch of the troops from Canton oving to

Civil Governor being in mourning and subsequently in their

the

reaching