Sir,
COPY.
C. O.
5629
RECO A
TC FEB 256
British Consulate,
Canton, January 31, 1899.
On November 7 last I had the honour to address you with regard to the piratical outrages on the inland waters in this neighbourhood and received your reply, dated November 28, informing me that the Tsungli Yamen had directed the Viceroy here to take stringent measures to put a stop to them. Since then matters have gone from bad to worse. On December 16, at the instance of the Hong Kong Government, I brought to the Viceroy's notice a sanguinary attack on a Hong Kong registered fishing junk in which 5 men were killed and others wounded. This occurred off Ping Hoi, some 40 miles north-east of Hong Kong. The native papers, since the date of my last despatch, report no less than 47 more cases of piracy, some 30 of which occurred on the North River, which enters the West River at Samshui. In several of these cases, life was taken, and it may almost be said that a reign of terror exists on the waterways of the Two Kuang. Cargo boats are afraid to travel at night or to move about except in company, and trade is becoming, to a certain extent, paralysed. The Viceroy is always ailing, and it is difficult to obtain interviews with him. I have repeatedly addressed him on the subject of these piracies in the strongest terms, but can only obtain the stereotyped reply that stringent instructions...
Sir Claude M. MacDonald, K.C.B. K.C.M.G.
Her Majesty's Minister,
PEKIN.