273
use the territory of China as a base for operations and
a refuge. But the articles movertheless provide for
British co-operation and sentemplate the possibility of
the employment of British warships for the purpose.
Although it was shown by the attack on the British
8.8. "Tungsbes" near teikaiwei on December 18th, 1985,
that merchant vessels are by no means safe in the North
China seas, yet the activities of the pirates have been
for the most part confined to southern Chinese waters and
even the attack on the "Tungshow" was the work of the Sina
Bay pirates. It is however necesSRITY though no hard
and fast line sen be drawn etween them to make SOME
distinction between high sons piracy and pirasy in the
Canton delta, from the point of view both or the methods
employed and of the extent of the responsibility of the
Chinese authorities. High seas piracies have always
somformed to the same mod i
The pirates join the ship
with the connivanes
as passengers and, owing to insufficient supervision at the
point of embarkation or, in some caEE
of the crew, succeed in smuggling arms on board. Generally
speaking they travel as third class passengers, but this is
by no means always the case.
a pre-coneerted momONÍ
they throw off their disguise, produce arms and foreibiy
take possession of the ship. They then compel the ship's
offieers to steer for some pirate base, generally Bins Bay,
where Lie anip is looted and subsequently released.
In
the Canton doita, while
to some extent, piretical attacks are more frequently made
from without by armed pirate launches.
he same methods ax 1180 employed
Hign seas piracies often take place ɔutside Chinese
territorial waters. The pirates often embark a foreign
controlled parts and their operations are usually so per-
festly organised and so clearly the result of a good intelli-
gence system that it has even been suggested that they may be
sontrolled