C.0.
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.j.9
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[38915]
No. 1.
Foreign Office to Admiralty.
50S
\REGE 17 DEC 07)
[November 28.j
SECTION 1.
(Confidential.) Bir,
Foreign Office, November 28, 1907. I HAVE laid before the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs your letter of the 23rd instant, inclosing a copy of telegram No. 104 from the Commander-in-chief on the China Station, regarding the methods proposed for suppressing piracy in Canton
waters.
I am to inform you that, in view of Admiral Moore's telegram No. 105, subse- quently communicated to this Department, and of the instructions which have been sent to him to proceed with his proposals for patrolling the Canton waterways if prompt compensation in the "Sainam case be not forthcoming, Sir E. Grey is of opinion that the suggestion for the destruction of Chinese villages harbouring or refusing to sur- render pirates need not-for the present, at least-be further pursued.
With reference, however, to the Commander-in-chief's statement that this sugges- tion was not feasible, as the robbers are continually on the move and do not long remain in the village, his attention might, in Sir E. Grey's opinion, be called to the fact that it would not be at all contrary to the practice in China to hold a town or village respon- sible for crimes committed in the immediate neighbourhood, and that the Headmen of a village in which they had been allowed to take refuge, for however short a time, might be called upon to furnish their names and habitual place of residence, or such other evidence as might be useful in securing their identification and ultimate arrest. If such information could be obtained, the Commander-in-chief or His Majesty's Consul- General at Canton would be in a better position to insist upon their capture and punishment.
I am, &c. (Signed) F. A. CAMPBELL.
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