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steamers of the Plaintiffs with their consent for the purpose of
protecting the steamers against piracy on the part of evilly
disposed persons among the passengers.
clear.
The facts out of which this question arises are really very
For many years there has been a great deal of piracy in
the China Seas and it has taken especially this form and it is
this form alone with which we are concerned in this case, that is
to say, persons have shipped as passengers on board these steamers
(the Chinese passengers on board these ships being very numerous and very hard to scrutinise) evilly disposed persons, persons
intending to be pirates, persons with a felonious intention as
they say in the cases, and then at a convenient moment they have
arisen and overcome the officers and so plundered the ship.
clearly is piracy. That is the state of affairs which had to be
dealt with. At one time there were Indian guards and at another time something else was suggested and various plans were discussed but it all came down to this perfectly simply and clearly, that about 1928 or 1929 the shipowners were saying these shipowners among them, that nothing was any use if the trade was going to be carried on except trained and disciplined men on board the ship. They could not provide them themselves; and they said the Govern- ment ought to provide them. Then the Government said: "Very well, we will provide them but you must pay for them. You must pay the charges", which were named, equivalent I suppose to the expense to the Government of the troops so employed. Then the shipowners said: "Well, we have no option but to accept those terms". That
really meant this: We must have armed guards, we cannot provide them ourselves, you say you will not give them to us without pay- ment, therefore we will agree to pay because we have no option. But we protest against it, we say you ought to give them to us for nothing. That is what it meant, it meant no option consistently with carrying on the business. It is not the case, and it cannot be contended for a moment nor is it contended, that the Government insisted on putting these troops on board the ships. The Plaintiffs were free not to carry on the trade at all. They were free to carry on
2.