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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
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attitude was one merely of curiosity, and no opprobrious epithets were used as we passed.
Piracy, so-called, is fairly common above Wuchow, steam-launches flying the British flag having frequently suffered. A fair number of guard-boats are stationed at intervals along the river, but these are of little use in apprehending pirates; nor do the local officials seem to have any systematic arrangements, apart from the guard-boats, for attempting to prevent the evil at the outset: they merely deal, more or less energetically according to the pressure applied, with each case as it comes up. The Canton Viceroy's proposal to station soldiers on each boat, which was carried out on launches running from Wuchow, has proved a failure, as it was bound to do. When at Ping Nam on the 17th, I learned from the Magistrate there that a launch had been pirated below that town on the 10th August, some hours after the "Moorhen" had passed up, and the soldiers on board were easily overpowered. A scheme whereby passengers, both male and female, are searched for weapons on shore, and then conveyed to the launch or steamer by specially licensed boat, is generally felt to be the only way by which such acts of violence might be effectively prevented. Some such precautions the steam-boat and launch Companies owe to their passengers, even though incurring temporary loss thereby. Under the present conditions it is regrettable to find that the British flag carries with it little significance in the eyes of the criminal classes on the West River; the pirating of nominally British-owned steam-launches has been carried on now for some time with comparative impunity; the pirates have been given plenty of rope, and it is to be hoped that their latest and most daring outrage, the successful attack on the steam-ship "Sainam," will prove by the issue of the case that they have been given enough wherewith to hang themselves.
6. Itinerary.
The following is a table of dates of departure and arrival at various places en route:
August 8. — Left Wuchow at 6:30 P.M.; anchored for night at 7:30 P.M. August 9 — Left at 7 A.M.; passed T'ông Hsien 11 A.M.; passed Mêng Kiang 1 P.M.; passed Pakma 3:40 P.M.; arrived Ping Nam 6:30 P.M. Anchored. August 10. — Left at 7:30 A.M.; passed Konghou 9:40 A.M.; passed Hsunchow 12:20 P.M.; arrived Kuei Hsien 7:15 P.M. Anchored. August 11-13. — At Kuei Hsien. August 14. — Left at 10:30 A.M.; arrived Hsunchow 4:15 P.M. Anchored. August 15-16. — At Hsunchow. August 17. — Left at 6 A.M.; anchored Ping Nam 24 hours; arrived Wuchow 4 P.M.(Signed) GEORGE COMBE.
August 28, 1906.
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[38624]
No. 1.
[November 17.]
SECTION 6.
0. 45640
Ref: 11 OFC 06
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received November 17.) (No. 399.) Sir,
Peking, October 4, 1906.
WITH reference to Mr. Carnegie's despatch No. 350 of the 20th August, I have the honour to report that the Peking-Nankow section of the Peking-Kalgan Railway was opened to traffic on the 30th ultimo by his Excellency Hu Yu-Fen, one of the two Administrators-General of the Northern Railways, in the presence of a large number of foreigners and Chinese, to whom an open invitation had been extended.
His Excellency, who was very infirm, was only able to make a short speech in Chinese, which was followed by an address in English by Taotai Jeme Tien Yow, the Engineer-in-chief of the line, who said that the Nankow section was 33 English miles long, and involved no very difficult engineering work. The next section would traverse the Nankow pass and the fourth would entail the construction of four tunnels, 180, 261, 1,000, and 3,450 feet long respectively, the first two of which are already completed. The whole line from Peking to Kalgan, 125 miles, should be finished in three years.
I have, &c.
(Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
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