From
THE COMMODORE,
HONGKONG.
Date
9th February 1935.
Το
The Commander-in-Chief, China Station.
Subject:-
Piracy of the s.s. Tungchow".
85
The enclosed copy of the minutes of a meeting held in my Office on Monday, 4th February 1935, to discuss the weaknesses of the present anti-piracy measures in use by firms, as exempli- fied by the piracy of the 8.3. Tungchow", is submitted for your information.
2.
A copy of these minutes is also being forwarded to the Senior Naval Officer, Shanghai, with instructions that they are to be held for delivery to H.M. Consul-General if and when you go direct.
3.
I desire to submit the following remarks with regard to the special case of the "Tungchow". In my opinion the firm of Butterfield and Swire should never have allowed seventy children, valuable cargo and Chinese passengers (over whom they admittedly have no control whatsoever) to be embarked in a ship which, as they now explain, cannot be adequately grilled and which carries a quite insufficient guard.
4.
In the event, one Russian guard has been killed and one British officer seriously wounded. Seventy children have undergone a most trying experience at an impressionable age, and extreme anxiety has been caused to their parents. The ship's officers and the children's schoolmaster and school- mistresses are exhausted by the responsibility which they had to bear. In your flagship, at HongKong, at Canton and at Shanghai Naval and Consular officers have been taking action (some 120 operational signals alone were involved).
one cruiser, one aircraft carrier, three destroyers, two sloops and six aircraft have been ordered to sea involving, with the ground staff at Kai Tak, say, 3,000 officers and men. enormous amount of fuel has been wasted. One Cantonese gun- boat has been patrolling the coast and a regiment of Cantonese troops and the whole of the Chinese anti-piracy guards have been and still are scouring the hills beyond Chilang point. All because of the negligence of Messrs. Butterfield and Swire in failing to take proper steps for the protection of one of their ships.
An
5. I will add that on Saturday and Sunday, 2nd and 3rd February, an alarm was raised by the failure of another of this firm's ships, the s.s. "Mainam", to report in accordance with the Communication Scheme after departure from HongKong at 1600 on the 2nd February. This ship was searched for by two destroyers the whole of Saturday night and by eight aircraft on Sunday fore- noon, while a third destroyer was ordered to sea and raised steam. At noon on Sunday a message was received from this ship: "All well.
Messages omitted account trouble wireless apparatus."
6.
Inconvenience caused to officers and men of H.M. Services is accepted by them as part of their duty; but it is thoroughly unsatisfactory that so much public money should be wasted by either the neglect of a wireless operator or the probably quite avoidable breakdown of a wireless set within a few hours of sailing.