Kee some seventeen miles from Canton under the following circumstances.
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The launch "Kwai Pin" left Canton on the 15th August with about one hundred passengers. As she was nearing Yung Kee, two sampans approached her and pirates who had come on board as passengers ordered the master of the launch to stop.
Resistance was offered and the master was shot through the thigh, and a fireman in the chest. The fireman died in the Hospital next day. The pirates in the sampans boarded the launch and after collecting all valuables on board, ran her aground on a sandbank and decamped. She was rescued later by a passing Government launch, the "Lee Yuan".
I am now engaged with Admiral Li and the Commissioner of Customs in formulating some regulations to be observed by foreign and Chinese owned launches alike with a view to preventing pirates from getting on board in the guise of passengers.
To do this with any effect, it will be necessary to limit the number of places at which passengers may be taken, but under the circumstances, I hope that you will sanction this as a provisional measure. The number of places where passengers may be taken will be a very liberal one and the launch owners will be...