of Hong Kong has been already under your notice as a serious evil. It is desirable to maintain an armed vessel under the control of the Governor of the Colony for the police of the port, to secure that the bays of the island are not allowed to become a shelter for Pirates, to pursue offenders within British waters and it may be occasionally to take part with vessels of the Royal Navy in the punishment of piracy in the neighbouring seas.
But it is obvious that the efficiency of such a vessel even for purely Colonial purposes will be seriously abridged if she is unable to pursue a flying pirate beyond the three-mile line, and compelled to show every particular capture effected within this not very definite line.
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