CO129-487 - Others & Individuals - 1924 — Page 65

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(2) "That with the inception of a system of convoys and "ascorts the Indian Guards as required by the Piracy "Regulations are superfluous and should be immediately "removed from the vessels subject to the approval of the "Naval Authorities".

preseed

"Apart from the general approval of the meeting many "officers who were on duty and could not attend have since "their satisfaction regarding the resolutions passed.

"Respectfully awaiting the detailed reply as mentioned in "your letter af No.1 in 2266/1922".

"We have the honour to be Sir, "Your obedient servants",

but

No reply, detailed or otherwise, has yet been received, it has since transpired that a Capt. Bloxham ex Indian Regiment has been appointed Officer Commanding Guards and it has, further, been made apparent that this military officer is very actively concerning himself in the structure of ships in relation to their suitability to resist piratical attack.

To deal first with the appointment of an Officer of the Indian Army to command guards who will never, in his presence, be actively

He is evidently appointed be- engaged in the duty assigned to them. cause of his experience of these men as Indian troops and his ability to speak their dialect, the only one with which the guards are conversant. He will of necessity be stationed ashore in Hongkong as a centre of command while the duty of the guards is afloat and under the so-called command of ships' officers who, if they have acquired any Asiatic language, will

It is thus evident that a more have selected the more useful Chinese.

We as Seamen feel unsuitable appointment would be difficult to make. entirely at a loss to express an opinion as to the suitability of an Army Officer to direct or criticise ship construction in general or in any detail pertaining to ships however small.

We have now received the following cable from our Hongkong

offices:-

in the following_words:-

"New Piracy Regulations published; very little alteration "from Draft Regulations. Combined Meeting held Sunday, membere "discontented. Correspondence between both Guilds and Government "to be published. Severe action not to be taken until peaceful "proceedure is exhausted".

A Reuters cable dated H.K. 10.3.24 amplifies the above "The crux of the difference arises from the fact that the "Regulations insist that "the officers shall resist to the uttermost' "while no provision is made for the dependents of those killed".

The state of affairs, as it appears to us, then, is that the members of the Mercantile Marine engaged in the "Danger Sone" have their lives under a cross fire of Regulations on the one side and a forlorn hope on the other.

This position is forced on them by a body of gentlemen who never met, and probably never will meat, a pirate on equal terms on his (the pirate's) busy day.

·

Although requested to make suggestions and although these requests have been complied with, every suggestion made by the experta (with their lives at stake) has been contemptuously set aside in a truly bureaucratic manner, which has only unbent sufficiently far as to seek the advice of the British and Chinese Chambers of Commerce in order to bolster up the inept actions of unprefessional heads of departmente. The value of this advice is aptly demonstrated by the fact that one section of the Chinese Chambers of Commerce expressed one opinion, a second section of it enunciated a diametrically opposite one, so it split the difference, then, being unable to agree to that, referred it to a sub-committee which is still silent in the matter.

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