The Shanghai Experiments

Stingley Jim , “Guerrillas in Blue: The True Story of S.W.A.T.”, True (July 1975), 40. The reader may question the wisdom of utilizing this source in a serious study. The author wishes to remind the reader that it is the mass-media which firmly entrenches concepts in the public mind, as glamorized as they may be. Cf. Institutional documents, which are not often much better in the latter regard. See also: Dagle John P. , “Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT) Concepts”, Officer Survival Course. Presented at the California Specialized Training Institute, Camp San Luis Obispo, California (September 1973), with later revisions.

These are records of the Office of Strategic Service's Far East Orientation School, which reflect the participation of former Shanghai Municipal Police personnel. See also: Area studies sponsored by the O.S.S. Research and Analysis Branch. O.S.S. archives are, with few exceptions, classified, although the possibility of declassification does exist. Application for specific documents should be made to the Central Intelligence Agency, Information and Privacy Coordinator, Washington, D.C. 20505. It is recommended that specialists familiar with this often complicated field of research be charged with the retrieval of such documents.

The most fruitful U.S. source of information regarding the activities of the Shanghai Municipal Police is the North China Daily News and Herald, Shanghai's English language newspaper, held on microfilm in advanced library collections. Lest the casual inquirer believe that such accounts are inaccurate, we will mention that the S.M.P. enjoyed excellent relations with the Daily News and Herald, and one will frequently find that newspaper accounts have been taken directly from official afteraction reports, with only mild censoring. Another source is the archives of the U.S. Marine Corps, particularly those documents reflecting information collection activities in the International Settlement, circa 1920–1939. With the exception of the sources mentioned herein, and in [2], above, the only other U.S. source of information regarding the S.M.P, is the S.M.P. archive material in the author's possession.

The author is indebted to the Encyclopedia Britannica for this description, as well as for much of the purely demographic information which follows. See: “Shanghai”, Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 20, Fourteenth Edition (1929), 455–458. The decision to use this source is based on the time period involved.

Ibid.

“Organization of Shanghai Muncipal Police.” Wall chart prepared by Intelligence Platoon, 6th U.S. Marines, December 15 1937. The author is indebted for this chart, as well as for all other S.M.P. archive material cited herein, to the Estate of W. E. Fairbairn.

Ibid.

Encyclopedia Britannica, loc. sit.

Ibid. And even these were not of much substance. In July 1924 the S.M.C. initiated regulations aimed to eliminate the employment of all children under the age of twelve.

Fairbairn W. E. , “Reserve Unit (Riot Squad) of the S.M.P.” Unpublished document in the author's library. “Previous to the formation of the Street Unions and the advent of Bolshevik propaganda into China, riotous mobs in Shanghai were more or less concerned with real or imaginary wrongs in reference to their working conditions.”

Letter from W. E. Fairbairn to Commissioner, S.M.P., January 22 1931, responding to the suggestion of a junior officer. Unpublished document in the author's library.

Private information. See also: Various editions of the North China Daily News and Herald. Cf. Executive Protection Handbook, The Burns International Investigation Bureau (1974), 1.

Various editions of the North China Daily News and Herald, particularly those 1925–1935.

Private information.

Private information. See also: The North China Daily News and Herald, loc. sit.

“Reserve Unit in Action.” North China Daily News and Herald (March 1, 1932), 325. American interests in Shanghai were represented by the U.S. Marine Corps, present in Shanghai in varying strengths until the outbreak of World War II.

Private information.

Fairbairn W. E. , “Reserve Unit (Riot Squad) of the S.M.P.”

Fairbairn and Sykes formed a noteworthy partnership. Together they designed the justly famous Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife; were both close-combat instructors to the British Commandos, and co-authored Shooting to Live, a pioneer work on the close-quarter use of the one-hand gun. Sykes was a shikari with extensive firearms experience.

Private information; interview with a former member of the Sniper's Unit.

An entertaining (although lightly fictionalized) account is: Harley Vivian , “The Old Small Cat”, Ashore and Afloat (August 1929), 118–119. Cf. S.M.P. archive material in the author's library.

Ibid.