CO129-484 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1924 [1-7] — Page 373

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Sir,

The Marine Engineers' Guild of China,

The China Coast Officers' Guild,

Hongkong, 25th March, 1924.

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In reply to your letter of the 13th instant,

I have the honour to inform you that these Guilds have again carefully considered the whole matter of piracy and I am directed to draw your attention to Resolution 2 in our letter of 4th ultimo, which reads:-

That all arms and armed guards required by the Piracy Regulations be removed from every "vessel and the absolute command restored to the "Master as laid down in the Merchant Shipping "Acts, unless some better method is devišēd”. "Required bythe Piracy Regulations", can only mean those arms and guards required by law and does not apply to arms which have always been voluntarily supplied by the ship owners to officers long before 1914 when the regulations referred to first came into foros.

It is admitted that without arms of any kind, any vessel might be seized by a mall body of determined men; but on the other hand a small body of determined officers unhampered by vexatious regulations and still more vexatious Indian guards, might well prevent an

attempt at piracy.

In the case of the captured "Sanning" the Captain and Chief Officer both fell very severely wounded resisting to the utmost, absolutely unaided by the Guards who do not appear to have offered any assistance whatever to the officers engaged in combat.

Further it is not suggested that patrols would

provide security from attack initiated from within, but

pirates