CO129-490 - Public Offices - 1925 — Page 655

COPY. (7 940/94/10)

3, Lombard Street,

LONDON, E.C.3.

sir,

11th March, 1925.

On behalf of the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company, Limited we, their London Attorneys, have the honour to ask your consideration of the Minority Report (dated January, 1925) of the Special Committee recently appointed by the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce to meet Representatives of the Hongkong Government to consider the Piracy Prevention Ordinance, 1914.

The Report speaks for itself, and we are asked to state that in the opinion of the Directore in Hongkong a full discussion on the question of Piracy Prevention would be productive of far better results than a discussion confined to amendments of the present Ordinance which, in the opinion of Shipowners and all Representatives of British commercial interests generally, fails in effectively dealing with the difficult question of Piracy Prevention.

Hitherto efforts have been largely confined to preventative measures on board the vessels plying in the Southern Delta of China, but as the result of experience the Board of Directors consider that the subject demands wider action if suppression of outrages, which are so detrimental to British trade and British prestige and constitute such a danger to British lives, is to be accomplished.

In giving expression to these views it is recognised

that the difficulties confronting the Hongkong Government

are very great, but it is hoped that an opportunity may be Rt. Hon. Austen Chamberlain, P.C., M.P.,

Secretary of State,

Foreign Office,

Downing Street, S.W.1.

given