Enclosure 2 in Mr. Carnegie's No. 336 of August 8th, 1906).
Mr. Carnegie to Sir Matthew Nathan.
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[Undecipherable text due to OCR errors]
PEKING,
August 8th, (1906).
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372371
pt 10 00 06
SEP 24 1906,
I have the honour to transmit to Your Excellency herewith copy of a despatch which I have addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs relative to the recent piratical attack on the British steamship "Sainam" on the West River.
I have also the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's despatch of July 23rd inclosing copy of a despatch to the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the same subject.
I would wish to remark that the Consul General at Canton in urging on the Viceroy the necessity of a well organised scheme for the suppression of piracy and the use of his foreign drilled troops to carry it out, appears to me to be adopting the best course under existing circumstances. It is probable that however well organised the scheme is at first, the tendency will be for it to deteriorate in efficiency as time goes on, but it would, I consider, be the duty of His Majesty's Representatives to endeavour to arrest this tendency by every means in their power.
I venture to think that the proposal in paragraph 6 of your despatch to Lord Elgin that the Imperial Maritime Customs should be entrusted with the task of suppressing piracy would be difficult to carry into effect.
[Undecipherable Chinese characters]
Your Excellency,
Matthew Nathan, K.C.M.G.,
etc.,
Hongkong.