Daily Press
thill 4.1913.
305
I attach a newspaper account of the piracy of this vessel committ- -ed just outside the waters of the Colony, when the vessel was on her way to the West River. The place where the vessel was beached by the pirates is off the coast of the Sai Lo District, referred to above. These robbers boarded the vessel as passengers in Hong- -kong. The ringleader was dressed in European clothes, had been a coolie in South Africa and spoke English. He engaged a first class cabin on the upper deck next to the cabin occupied by the Captain. The other pirates were dressed in long Chinese silk coats, or in European attire. They numbered about 47 and about half of them were armed with modern automatic pistols or revolvers. They were accompanied by 4 women and 3 children who went ashore with the pirates. It is surmised that the arms were stuggled on board the vessel by these women. Fortunately the European Officers of the. Chinese Maritime Customs at a station not far from where the steamer was beached, suspecting from the vessel's position that she had been pirated, communicated very early on the morning of the 4th. with the hagistrate, Mr. Lau Tsz Ping, at Nam Tau, who was until quite recently the confidential writer in the Registrar- -General's Office here. Mr. Lau, with commendable promptitude, turned out his available soldiers and attacked the body of pirates
notTM but long after their landing. A stiff fight ensued and lir. Lau's men succeeded in killing one of the pirates and capturing 5 others and in recovering some of the booty. On the 5th. instant as the result of a general search instituted by the Police in Yaumati another pirate was arrested with 890 and the watch belonging to the lady passenger (mentioned in the newspaper enclosure hereto)
in his possession.
6.
The Police are in the habit of searching the passengers embarking on steamers bound for Canton and the West River and the passengers of the "Tai On" were searched after a fashion: but owing to the increased number of steamers the search is not conducted as thoroughly as it used to be or as it ought to be. It is evident that stringent measures must be taken to prevent as far as possible the repetition of such an outrage. These