17
was captured on December 18th, 1925, by pirates
disguised as passengers and taken to Bias Bay;
that during the first six months of 1926 three
subsequent acts of piracy were perpetrated on
British Yessols by the pirates who had their
headquarters at that spot; that on November
15th, 1926, occurred the case of the "Sanning",
referred to above, and that further piracies
of British ships were carried out on the 27th
January, 21st Laroh and 30th August 1927. The
Chinese authorities were unfortunately unable,
in the conditions then prevailing, to take any
effective action to put an end to this state of
affairs, and it was to their inability to do so
that this serious and unchecked recrudescence of
piratioal activity must be attributed.
5.
Having regard to this series of out-
rages on British ships, and to the terme Of
Article 53 of the Treaty of Tientsin, repeated
representations were made on behalf of His
Kajesty's