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Page 4 of China No.494/1034 of
28th March, 1935.
and, through the Senior Naval Officer and the Consul-General, had called on the Chinese to co-operate against the pirates by taking active steps to apprehend them. The Chine se authorities gave orders for the following to be carried out :-
Warnin; telegrams were at once sent to Colonel Chen, the director of the anti-piracy bureau at utau, and to the Magistrate of the Haifang district, instructing them to intercept the pirates. 3trict orders were given to local magistrates and military commanders to move troops at once to search all villages and intercept pirates. General Li Yang Ching, the Officer Commanding in East Kwantung, ordered one regiment of his best troops to proceed from Wai Chow to Tai San-I. Special instructions were sent to Hoy Fang and Tuk Fang magistrates to detain village elders in those villages under suspicion in the neighbourhood of the place where the pirates had landed, and to bring heavy pressure to force elders to hand over the pirates or to give accurate informationgas to their whereabouts.
The British Minister in the meanwhile had caused representations to be made to the Wai Chiao Fu, whose vice Minister had promised to end urgent instructions to the authorities concerned to take most energetic action against piracy.
8.
On 5th February, the Commodore, Hong Kong, who had been continually in communication with our Consul-General at Canton, informed me as follows :
"The Canton Government have offered a reward of $5000 for the arrest of the leader and number two pirate of gang who pirated Tung chow". The firm of Taikoo also offer a further reward of 2500 Hong Kong, which will be paid through the Inspector General of Police Hong Kong, to the person or persons giving information which leads to the arrest
either in British or Chinese territory) and conviation of the principal leaders of the gang. The identity of the principal pirate for whom this reward is offered must be elearly established through identification by the ship's officers to the satisfaction of the police authorities".
The Commodore arranged with the Chinese authorities for H.M.DECOYto take a Chinese Major and 20 soldiers to Taiech Point, to land them while the gunboat WOO FUNG proceeded to Hong Hai Bay.
10.
Our China Fleet has a very good liaison with the Chinese Northern and Southern navies as well as with the Chinese army in the south, in regard to anti-piracy measures.
It was in April, 1934, when I visited Marshal Chan Chi Tong at Canton, that he said, in the course of a conversation, that the Chinese navy and army would like to co-operate with us in anti-p racy measures. I immediately arranged for his representative and the Commodore, Hong Kong, and the Senior Naval Officer, west River, to meet to discuss how this could be done, and, with the help of the Congul-General & Canton, a complete organisation was then worked out, by which the Chinese army and navy in the south were put in close touch by wireless and telephone with our naval anti-piracy patrols. Chinese Military Posts and Coast Watching Stations were set up in the Bias and Hong Hai Bay area, which has been notorious as containing Pirate lairs for many years.
It is true, of course, that the Chinese are not