179
HONG KONG.
B'AS BAY PIRACIES,
(Supplement to Sessional Paper No. 7 of 1927)
No. 1927
Q. CASE OF THE S.S. "SOLVIKEN”.
Pirated on 20th July 1927.
I.-Despatch of 21st July 1927, from the Governor of Hong Kong,
to His Majesty's Consul-General, Canton.
Sir,
I have the honour to inform you that the S.S. "Solviken", of 1,435 tons, registered at Bergen, and owned by the Norwegian firm of Messrs. Wallem and Company left Hong Kong at 8 a.m. on 19th July for Saigon, with 500 tons of general cargo, 280 tons of bunker coal and 300 Asiatic deck passengers on board. At about 4 a.m. on the next day, 20th July, she was captured by pirates and forced to put back to Bias Bay where she arrived at 2 a.m. on 21st July.
2. I attach for your information a police report* on the facts, so far as they can be ascertained at present. It appears that the Master, Captain R. Jentost, was seriously wounded, while the 2nd Officer and the Wireless Operator have also been injured by revolver shots.
3. While it is clear that the pirates actually boarded the ship in Hong Kong (and as she is not subject to the piracy regulations and was proceeding to a port outside the danger zone this cannot be prevented), it is equally clear that the coup was engineered by the Bias Bay gang, since it was to that place the pirated ship was taken and it was there the plunder was landed.
I should be much obliged therefore if you would inform the Canton Government, and enquire of them if they are now prepared to accept the friendly co-operation of my Government in a combined operation which will once and for all root out this gang whose depredations are even more damaging to Chinese than to foreign interests.
5. Should this offer be refused, and should the Canton Government itself still fail to take the necessary punitive and precautionary measures in Bias Bay, I have the honour to request that you will repeat the warning that independent British punitive action · will without fail be taken if the Bias Bay gang commit any further outrage on a British ship.
I have, &c.,
*Not printed.
(Sd.)
C. CLEMENTI,
Governor, &c.