..
they may not use their registration papers to go to sea
39
without the precautions designed for the safety of pass-
-engers which are enforced by "Board of Trade
Registration"
The solution may perhaps be found in allowing only vessels
of 15 tons burden or under to be so registered, and only
provided they do not carry more than 12 passengers. It is
to this problem that Sir Havilland de Sausmarez is devoting
his attention, and I have had the advantage of some dis-
-cussion with him upon it. It would seem probable that the
matter must already have received consideration in the
case of other great inland rivers (or lakes) such as the
Nile, Congo, etc.
6.
The Minister writing to the
Foreign Office on 24th. November, 1907, said that the
question of controlling the launch traffic by regulations
was one which has presented difficulties for 20 years.
Admiral Sir Arthur Moore stated to the British Minister at
Peking that he felt sure that a large number of the steam-
-vessels on the West River which are nominally British-
-owned were in point of fact Chinese-owned, and that "there
was nothing to prevent the launches being run by a Chinese
Captain and crew who are in league with robbers for the
plunder of the passengers". He proposed when he visited
Canton