CO129-330 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 337

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proposed to plunder disguised as ordinary passen-

gers and to hold it up at the first convenient spot.

As a means of prevention I suggested that every

passenger should be searched for arms by the offi-

cials before being allowed to embark on a launch.

The likin officials said that this was impossible

unless the search could take place on the launches

as passengers did not go on board in special boat

or from any one place so that no supervision from

the shore could be exercised,

The launch compa-

nies however would not agree to allow their passen-

gers to be searched on board by the officials nor

would they consent to provide searchers themselves,

for the result, they said, would be to drive pas-

sengers away from the companies which enforced the

precaution to those which neglected it. They re-

fused for the same reason to keep special boats for

their passengers at the various stopping places and

also declined on the ground that their business

could not afford the expense either to provide

guards of their own for their launches or to allow

the officials to do so for them. The only suggestion

that I could get out of the Agents was that the offi-

cials should patrol the river with armed steam

launches;

our own gunboats, they said, were useless

as they never went higher up the West River than Wu-

chow and were here too seldom. The objection Chinese

passengers have to being searched is chiefly due to

the fact that the majority of them endeavour to recoup

themselves for the cost of their journey by doing a

little contraband business on their own account. To

explain their apparent remissness in not detaining the

launches the officials en route explained, with per-

fect truth, that they had not the means to do 80.

They strongly suspected the real state of affairs and

at one place the "weiyuan" sent a boat out to enquire

what was the matter. The reply was that there were

pirates in possession, but by the time that the local

warjunk had been made acquainted with the situation

the launches were already a mile off. Until within

the last few weeks when a gunboat has been occasional-

ly stationed here, these obsolete warjunks constitu-

the