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with the burning of parts of Canton and the disarming of the Canton Merchant Volunteers, there was hardly a breathing space during
which any extensive campaign against the pirates could be even
considered. As fast as one crisis was past and attention turned
to anti-piracy another crisis arose in Canton.
(3) In spite of all this interruption a great deal has been
done to deal with the piracy evil. General Li Fook Lum, the
appointed Chinese official to deal with the pirates, has been
enormously handicapped by want of men and money and especially
gunboats or armed launches. in even greater handicap is the
tremendous jealousy between all the various provincial troops
and their commanders, All districts are parcelled out between
these military commanders who extort what is possible out of
their areas. They are much too busy doing this to have time
or inclination to bother about pirates who do not damage their
own pockets and in many cases no doubt contribute to their
fortunes as the price of being left alone. Consequently if any
cther General shows signs of moving or taking aotion in their
personal area they at once suspect him of designs on their posts
and put every possible obstacle in his way, going as far as fight-
ing him if they feel strong enough. There is no doubt whatever
that much of the piratical trouble is due to their soldiers
who pirate one day and resume soldiering the next. Even if they
do not take an active part in piracy they do not take any active steps against it and no doubt are compensated accordingly.
However, during the last three months further action has
been taken in several areas by General Li Fook Lum and a fuir
number of pirates and their leaders have been rounded up and,
in many cases, shot. Like all Chinese operations they do not
appeal to our ideas of efficiency but in the present state of
the country they are as much as can be expected and personally
I am surprised at the amount of energy and zeal shown. Provided
the situation in Canton remains quiet these operations will
continue and should have a great effect on the whole question, but there is always the danger that other Generals will become
evon)
11.
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