- 5-
29
hospital treatment and under certain
circumstances passages to India, but they can resign on 6 months' notice, they draw
no pay on leave and are not on the pensionable
establishment. They are therefore
considerably cheaper to employ than Indian
Police.
IV. The China Navigation Co., Ltd.
Messrs. Butterfield & Swire, Agents for the China Navigation Co., Ltd., have consistently
objected to the employment of Indian Guards.
They therefore pressed for Northern Chinese
Under European supervision and as Northerners
under European Officers had already been
employed successfully by the Police in 1924, on the senior ships when ships, chiefly West River ships, travelled in convoy, no objection was raised and the experiment was
undertaken. These proposals were originally intended to apply to the 8 ships on the
Coastal service (Shanghai) only but were later extended to cover the 4 ships running to
Singapore.
Guards were supplied during the months
of July and August to 7 ships on the Shanghai coastal run, later increased by 1 and 4 on the
Singapore run:-
British Sergeants......4 (Singapore run) Russian Sergeants.....12 (8 Shanghai run
4 Singapore run)
cals)}
Northern Chinese,
1st Class (Corporals 2nd Class
72 (i.e.6 per ship
The