Lu Yo
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}(C U P Y)
Sir,
421
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce.
Hongkong, 21st November, 1908.
Referring to the letter of 28th July last in which the Committee of the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce ventured to lay before you their views on the subject of piracy in the Provinces of the Two Kwang and more particularly with reference to the piratical attack on the British Steamship "Sainan" in the West River on the 13th August, I now beg to inform you that we learn through the Secretary of the Hongkong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Co. Ltd. who act for the joint owners (themselves, the Indo China Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. and China Navigation Co., Ltd.) that they have been informed their claim for consequential damages cannot be supported by His Majesty's Government.
The Committee of this Chamber received the news as to the decision of His Majesty's Ministers with very great regret and in the interests of British Trade generally and the prosperity of this Colony considered it advisable to at once telegraph protesting against this decision and requesting that the instructions on the subject issued to His Majesty's representative in China be suspended pending receipt of our written protest.
The consequential losses have been occasioned to the Steamboat Companies through this attack cannot be disputed by any one qualified to speak on the subject.
Acting under Treaty rights these British Companies have at great expense opened up and developed a new branch of trade with China and there is good reason to believe that had such security to life and property which we are entitled to receive from the Imperial Government been maintained, the trade would rapidly have developed and proved highly remunerative to all concerned.
Sir Edward Grey, Bart., M.P.