(C O P Y)
My Lord,
424
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
Mongkong, 20th November, 1908.
I beg to remind you that on many occasions the Committee of the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce has felt constrained to direct the attention of His Majesty's Government to the great loss and hindrance occasioned to trade by the prevalence of piracy in the waterways of the neighbouring provinces of China.
As Your Lordship is no doubt aware, yet another piratical attack was made on a British steamer on the 13th July last, when the S.S. "Saina" was boarded by pirates while between the towns of Kaukong and Samshui on the West River. The Commander of the vessel and several others were seriously wounded, some lives lost, including Dr. Macdonald's, and a quantity of valuable property carried off.
The whole question has been dealt with very fully by the Foreign Office, and we much appreciate the action taken by the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs with a view to inducing the Chinese Authorities to take the necessary steps for punishing the perpetrators in this instance and for checking such outrages in the future.
Whether the representations made by His Majesty's Government to the Imperial Government at Peking will have any lasting good result still remains to be seen; at present, there appears to be little evidence of improvement, but our reason for addressing Your Lordship is that we have recently been informed His Majesty's Minister at Peking has received instructions not to support a claim put forward by the owners of the "Saina" for consequential damages.
This decision on the part of His Majesty's Government
Right Honourable
The Earl of Elgin, K.G.,