غولية
الراس
39
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trade from this port, which has till lately been flourishing to an incredible extent, is threatened with dislocation, and I have exhausted all my powers of argument in trying to induce the Viceroy to take some radical steps.
A proposal of mine to place an adequate force of the old torpedo-boats at Whampoa and of drilled men in charge of a very suitable British subject for a campaign against the robbers and pirates, which proposal was being favourably entertained by the Viceroy, has fallen through owing to the jealousy of a German subject employed in the torpedo department at Whampoa, who was backed up by his Consul. Life and property are no longer safe in this district, and if the important trade of this wealthy province is not to be eventually completely ruined, I see no other alternative than that the British Government should undertake what the Chinese Authorities either will not or cannot do.
The robbers and pirates are numbered by thousands already, and encouraged by impunity are daily enlisting more recruits. I understand that the neighbouring province of Kwanghsi is suffering in a similar manner, and any scheme for the regeneration of Kwangtung should include it. It is hardly necessary to say that the country generally would welcome foreign intervention to rid them of this scourge, which has reached proportions