Copy.
(F 6297/43/10)
Se rice Dept.
39
Navigators and General Insurance Company, Limited.
23, Leadenhall Street,
E.C, 3,
14th November, 1928.
Your Reference F 5411/43/10.
Sir,
re Piracy in China Seas
Further to our letter of the 6th October and your
reply of the 10th October, we beg to inform you that we have
recently received a cablegram from the China Coast Officers' Guild in Hongkong, (with which organization we are, together with the Marine Engineers' Guild of China, federated,) to the
effect that the China Coast Officers' Guild "anticipates
withdrawal of guards and asks us to strongly oppose such
withdrawal, indicating that British Officers' lives are at
stake. TT
We feel that it is highly improbable that our friends
in Hongkong would send a cable in such terms unless they nad
very strong reasons for believing that there was a very
definite probability that the system of guards was about to
be withdrawn. We understand they are in very close touch
with both the Naval and Military Authorities in Hongkong.
We therefore, on behalf of some nine thousand officers
of the Merchant Navy, venture to urge in the strongest
possible terms that instructions be given from London that all
vessels exposed to the risk of piracy in Eastern Waters be
The Under-Secretary of State,
Foreign Office,
LONDON.
S.W.1.
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