52
embarking have no money and the pirates will not bother
about them. It is the homeward bound 1t they are after
who all carry money and valuables".
Another member who, quite recently, was serving an an
off leer in the "Anking" makes the following observations;~
"The first important question is about armed guards which
wore supplied by the army in Singapore. They started
after the "sunning" pirsey. flow, during the whole time
that I was on that run (nearly two years), I had only
one guard. While on the "Anking" I had none but she
carried one or two after the "Sunning" business. The first
to carry armed guarda and were still carrying them when I
left were the British India Steam Havigation Company and
Heither of these Companies have had any of
their chips on that particuler run piratač. The Dutch
Company on this run curry Javanese soldiers as a guard
and before I left Hong Kong the C.P.R. boats had been
warned that the pirates were after them and they earsied
soldiers from Hong Kong to Shanghai. We on board had
always maintained that we would be pirated and used to
have long discussions on the subject, because, after all,
there were onl; eight Europeens on board.
Jardine's.
The only posible solution is a guard or a British
soldier with rifle and fixed bayonet which has a
onderful moral effect on the Chinaman. I have seen this
by experience. The guards in question used to usually ounaist, in our Company, of an H... and six men.
other companies usually had an officer and ten men. The
arrangement was that the Company fed the men and kept them in Hong Kong until they returned on another ship.
The
Usually, they were only in Hong Kong a few days, ususlly
two/