CO129-431 - Governor Sir May - 1916 [1-2] — Page 445

DEAR SIR,

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London Chamber of Commerce to China Association.

London, 8th June, 1914.

At the request of Mr. F. Anderson, Chairman of the Far Eastern Section, I am sending you herewith copy of a letter addressed by the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce to the Colonial Secretary there on the subject of the Tai-on piracy

I hope to receive from you a copy of the letter which I understand the China Association has addressed to the Foreign Office on the matter.

H. C. Wilcox, Esq.,

Secretary, China Association,

159, Cannon Street, E.C.

Yours faithfully,

(Signed) C. E. TOWN,

Assistant Secretary.

Copy of letter addressed by the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce to the Colonial Secretary, Hongkong, dated 2nd May, 1914.

SIR,

At a Committee Meeting held immediately subsequent to the Annual General Meeting of Members on Tuesday, the 28th ultimo, the recent piratical attack on the S.S." Tai-on" and the increasing frequency of like outrages were discussed.

1.-A feeling of insecurity is abroad which must have a deleterious effect on the Colony's trade, already heavily penalised by Currency problems and the unsettled state of the Two Kwang.

2-It is a fact worthy of note that, in every piratical outrage on the British flag in Local Waters my Committee believe, the attack has taken place on the out- ward voyage from the Colony. Presumably, therefore, the pirates are shipped as passengers at Hongkong itself.

3-The inference to be drawn from (2) is that the Chinese Officials possess some system of Espionage or method of detection more efficient than our own, or for some reason it is simpler for the pirates to ship in Hongkong than at a Treaty Port or Way Station.

4-In the case of the Sainam Piracy in 1906 the suggestion was made that the suppression of piracy should be attempted by:-

(a) The organisation of Chinese River Police Patrols using armed launches and under the command of European Officers, or

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(b) the patrol of the river and Canton Delta by British Gunboats at the expense of the Chinese Government.

5.-My Committee does not know what, if any, system of patrol is now extant on the river, but it is to be noted that most of the outrages occur between this port and Wong Moon.

6.—A patrol of this part of the journey, which appears to embrace the stronghold of the pirates, could and should, in my Committee's opinion, be conducted by the gun- boats of His Majesty's Navy on the China Station; particularly a gunboat should be in the vicinity of Kai-On at such times as the day and night boats pass that point.

The patrol having once been established should be continued; a period of inactivity may induce a false sense of security.

7.—It is in any case essential that an efficient search and scrutiny of passengers and luggage be made before the boats leave this port and, if necessary, that more powers be given to the officers of the vessel to enable them to assist the police,

8.-My Committee is not satisfied, in the light of recent happenings, that the present search conducted by the police is at all efficient. This is probably due to the obvious fact that the staff at the disposal of Government is quite insufficient for the purpose and needs very considerable augmentation to achieve resulta.

9.-My Committee strongly urge His Excellency to make representations to the Admiralty for the efficient patrolling of the waters between the Colony and Wong Moon, and to cause the search staff to be largely increased in number.

10-My Committee believe that most of these carefully organised piratical attacks are arranged by people being then resident in certain villages or towns, the exact position of which is well known to the Chinese Authorities,

My Committee considers, therefore, that the strongest possible representations should be made either to the high local officials, or to the Central Government through His Majesty's Minister on the subject, and that the Chinese officials should be requested to go to the root of the evil and deal in the first place with the pirates homes and their local shipping.

I have, &c.,

(Signed) E. A. M. WILLIAMS,

Secretary.

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