CO129-343 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 122

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dealing with piracy along the seaboard, and for

fully 20 years they carried on a moet successful

work without ever, so far as I knew, having given

rise to a clain of any kind.

What was now required was that a sinflar

acheme, not necessarily British in its composition,

should be applied to the inland waters, for if the

Chinese Government wished to inspire confidence, the

employmmt of foreigners was an absolutely essential

feature of the arrangement.

The Grand Secretary took note of this precedent

and is Excellency T'ong expressed the opinion,

based upon an intimate knowledge of the local

conditions, that if the authorities really exerted

themselves, they could put a stop to piracy in a

month.

While promising further consideration of the

question on the receipt of the Viceroy's report,

lls Excellency said that the root of the evil

lay in the illicit importation of arms from longkong

and