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3.
In 1931, an action was brought in the
High Court of Justice by the Chine Navigation Company, claiming that the Crown had no right to exact payments
for the provision of military guards, but the action
was dismissed and the dismissal was upheld by the Court
of Appeal.
4.
The view of the Admiralty has been
and still is that a proper system of grilles, coupled
with the use of armed police guards, is an adequate
protection against "internal piracy" and that the use
of naval or military guards, which can only be provided
at the expense of much inconvenience to naval or
military arrangements, is not therefore called for,
except possibly as a purely temporary measure to meet
an emergency. The provision of an armed police force,
which My Lords understand has worked satisfactorily in
ships trading in South China waters, is also very much
more economical.
5.
In these circumstances, enquiries
have been initiated locally as to the possibility of
the establishment of a force at Shanghai under the
control of the Shanghai Municipal Police on the lines
of the force at Hong Kong, and assuming, as there is no
reason to suppose is not the case, that there is no
inherent difficulty in making such arrangements, My
Lords consider this, with the provision of grilles as
necessary, to be the proper solution of the question.
6.