2
9. In spite of these regulations piracies continue, and
in some cases pirates have landed in close proximity to the
shore guards. It was felt, therefore, that the present
arrangements were insufficient and that something much more
detailed and drastic was necessary to fix responsibility, and
not until considerable tightening up was effected on the
shore-side would anything be achieved, as the final line of
retreat of the pirate was left practically open.
10. I suggested that they should look back to the method
adopted on the West River, which to a very large extent
stopped piracy on the river and delta. The method there
adopted was for the magistrate of the district to co-opt all
the head men and the elders of the villages and make them
responsible that no piratical acts were committed by people
in their villages and also that a careful census should be
taken so as to make them quickly aware of the fact that
bandits or pirates were probably in the village.
By this
means certain villages were gradually marked down and in due
course operations were carried out against them by Chinese
troops in co-operation with our Gunboats. By these means
many pirates were killed and captured. In one case the
magistrate himself disappeared and in other cases one or two
of the head men found things so unhealthy that they also
disappeared.
11.
I mentioned that only last year Marshal Chan Chai
Tong in conversation with Sir Miles Lampson had stated that
the way to eliminate pirates was to burn their villages.
12. If the Marshal could be persuaded to put into
operation some such scheme as outlined in paragraph 10 and
d
would issue an evict that failure in any district would be
met with severe punishment, such as the burning of the
/villages