COFY.
CONFIDENTIA
Subject:- ANTI PIRACY MEASURES.-CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AND MR. JOHN SWIRE ONBOARD H.M.S. "KÄNT" AT SHANGHAI 7TH MAY. 1935.
From.......THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. CHINA STATION.
H.M.S. "Kent" at Shanghai.
Date....9th May, 1935.
No.773/01034.
93
To......THE SECRETARY OF THE ADMIRALTY.
(Copies to:- His Majesty's Minister in China.
H.B.M.Consul-General, Shanghai.
The Commodore, Hong Kong.
The Staff Officer Intelligence),Shanghai.)
Be pleased to lay before Their Lordships the
following report of a conversation which I had with Mr. John Swire, one of the local managers of Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, on 7th May, 1935, at an "At Home" onboard H.M.S. "KENT" on the subject of the Anti-Piracy arrangements and regulations
2. Mr. Swire said that he greatly admired the very thorough and complete arrangements of the Navy for locating a ship which had been pirated, and said that his firm were doing all that could possibly be done to make their ships as safe as possible against piracy, but what he felt nervous about was what would happen when Navel or Air Force forces arrived at the ship before the pirates had left her. He said he thought they ought not to close the ship until this had occurred, because the pirates would be tempted to murder the uropean and American passengers and then mingle in the crowd of Chinese onboard with the idea that they could not be identified.
3. I told him that I thought it was quite impossible to lay down rules as to how each particular case should be dealt with, but said at the same time it was a matter which was constantly in my mind and that in the last few days my staff had been in touch with representatives of Butterfield and Swire, and also Jardine, Mathesons, and had discussed with them the possibilities of organising Wireless Anti-Piracy arrangements on the runs to the northward of Shanghai.
4.
He said that of course the idea of a piracy being carried out on the Northern run was entirely new when the S.S. "Tungchow" was pirated in January of this year. I said that the "Shuntien" was an example last year, and he said that was not really a piracy, but a retaliation for the severity of the anti- smuggling steps which the Chinese had put into force. That statement seemed to me to be pure nonsense, as it was in fact a piracy. I called his attention to the fact that we had taken the passenger hostages away by force from the pirates. "Oh yes", he said, but that was in the way which he advocated that is to say, that the Forces should not appear or take action until the pirates had left the ship. I pointed out to him that the hostages were onboard pirate junks with the pirates, that is to say in precisely the same situation they were in when onboard the steamer, and that according to his idea, as it appeared to me, the pirates would have murdered the hostages and disposed of their bodies before our landing forces could have rescued them.
/5.