COPY
SECRET.
Copics to!-
Peking No. 42
Secretary of State,
Canton No.107.
RECEIVED 12JUN 1928
OOL.OFFICE
Government Hou
Hong Kong.
7th May, 1928.
sir,
I have the honour to acknowledge the
receipt of Your Excellency's letter dated the
7th May, on the subject of anti-piracy measures in
Bias Bay, and to inform you in reply that during
last March the whole position with regard to this
matter was radically altered in my opinion, by the
re-establishment of friendly relations between the
Hong Kong Government and the de facto Government of
Muangtung. At personal interviews, which then took
place between Marshal Li Chai-um and myself, I was
given more than once the ascurance that it was the
intention of the Cantonese Authorities to clean up
the whole country round about Bias Bay, and to take
effective measures to suppress piracy and briganarye.
At these interviews General Tsui King-tong who hee
been deputed to take personal command of the troops
engaged in these anti-piracy measures, was himself
present and I was told that the policy known to the
Chinese as "cleaning up villages" would be
energetically
His Excellency
Major General C. C. Luard, C.B. C.M.G.,
General Officer Commanding the troops,
South China Command.
66