96
had landed being pointed out on a chart. The naval
chief of staff said that although they already mad
a warship at Bias Bay, it had no wireless. They
would accordingly send another ship to the spot as
soon as possible and at the same time the Military
headquarters would be requested to telegraph to the
General at Walchow to send troops to cooperate in
+
intercepting the fugitives. The local authorities
are always profuse in promises of this sort, but
they are incompetent and where their own immediate
interests are not concerned they do very little.
There has been a lot of propaganda in the Canton
Gazette and other papers about the naval base,
depot and wireless station which the Canton naval
authorities were about to establish at Bias Pay,
coal
but the Chief of staff admitted to me that there was
no truth in all this and that there were no funds
for sucn a soneme. After leaving the navul head-
quarters I went on to the Bureau for Foreign Affairs
to impress on Mr. Cau, and through him the Canton
Goverment, the enormity of this last outrage and
the necessity for action. Mr. Chu was also profuse
in regrets and promises.
5. The truth of the matter is that the area
between Bias Bay and Swabue is in the hands of
pirates, brigands and communists and the military
authorities seem unable to bring it under control.
At all everts they are moving very slowly in the
matter and for some time to come British shipping
will!