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Common but : they were honest traders on Was As evoneous impression Jūrales hiracy was Convenient, and as rife at the time, the Imperial Government had no steam vessels and our Gunboats were insufficient even if it had been their duty to sweep the long line of Coast, the Admiral came to the conviction that anything short of a total disarming of these junks would be useless toward suppression of Piracy, and urged Me to bring it to the notice of the Vice Roy. I confess I did not quite coincide with the Admiral's views, conceiving that if security from piracy and robbery could be ensured to the junk owners, it was scarcely fair to deprive them of their only means of defence, and I remonstrated as much. The Admiral however thought differently, and at an interview he had with the Vice Roy about the 17th of November 1887 he mentioned the subject, and, rather to my surprise, the Vice Roy acquiesced and promised to take steps for the entire disarmament of fishing junks, and subsequently issued a Proclamation dated the 5th of April 1868.
I think I had previously on the 5857 March, transmitted a draft of the Proclamation to the Governor of Hongkong.