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CONDITIONS IN SOUTH CHINA.
Piracy has nearly always been a lucrative profession in China, where the feudal system and the division of provinces into small
self-contained areas have encouraged the taxation "of passing
merchandise, just as a similar system had done in Europe in the Middle Ages along the banks of the Rhine. The pirate's lot only became a hard one when a system of ordered government was firmly established, and this had not occurred in South China for many years.
From the end of 1920 down to the present time there has, broadly speaking, been no settled Government in Canton. More- over, the four districts into which the Canton delta, with its network of river communications, may be divided-Shuntuk with Canton at the north end, Heong Shan on the south, the East River district on the east and San Wei on the west-have been during this period under the partial control of different generals whose allegiance to Canton has often been little more than nominal. The local Chinese officials, while protesting their desire to suppress piracy and banditry, were usually too occupied with internal dissentions to press for action, and no military leader was willing, or dared, to detach any considerable number of troops for the purpose of preserving order in outlying districts. The Bias Bay area, to which pirated ocean ships were usually taken, was never really controlled by Canton; it was, in fact, more often under the jurisdiction of forces definitely hostile to that Government. The Russian report on the organisation of the Cantonese Armies (see M.I.R. for December, 1927) gives some idea of the uselessness of the various military bodies as supporters of law and order in the Kwantung Province,
A description of the pirates' treatment of their captives will give the best impression of the terror which they inspired. Nearly every piratical attack would be accompanied by the kidnapping of all persons who looked sufficiently affluent to produce a ransom. The pirates' intelligence system enabled them to assess fairly accurately their victim's capacity to pay, and to ask as much as twenty thousand dollars was not unusual.
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If the sum demanded was not quickly forthcoming, they would ginger" up the relatives by the despatch of an ear or a finger ; to be followed, if need be, by such other portions of the captive's anatomy as could be readily removed without danger to life. One can well imagine the victim's feelings while awaiting this final test of his popularity in the home circle, for should his friends fail to produce the dollars, his death was certain.
Execution would be carried out in whatever way was calculated most to divert or satisfy the lusts of the pirate leaders. A method employed by a female leader with the euphonious name of One-eyed Ying" was personally to lacerate and mutilate the captive and finally to cut out his heart; this she would then eat! Even the Chinese appear to have thought this rather monstrous,
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