CO129-507-3 China- anti-piracy precautions 31-10-1927 - 25-10-1928 — Page 151

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.

CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

180

February 2, 1928.

D

SECTION 1.

[F 521/43/10]

No. 1.

Sir M. Lampson to Sir Austen Chamberlain.-(Received February 2, 1928.)

(No. 2224.) Sir,

Peking, December 20, 1927.

I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith the replies* which I have received from His Majesty's consular representatives at Foochow, Ningpo, Swatow, Canton and Shanghai in reply to the enquiry which I addressed to them on receipt of your telegram No. 590 of the 31st October regarding the precautions at present taken at treaty ports to prevent persons with arms in their possession from going on board steamers and the possibility of extending or strengthening such precautions with a view to combating piracy.

2. I did not again approach His Majesty's consul at Amoy, as correspondence has already been exchanged with him on the subject and copies will be found in my despatch No. 937 of the 30th August last.

3. That and the enclosed despatches show that the precautions taken vary at each port, but, for several reasons, are in no case really adequate. It will be noticed, too, that none of the consular officers concerned are sanguine as to the possibility of effecting a marked improvement.

Any search of passengers must be conducted either on board ship or on the wharf prior to embarkation, and the difficulties to be overcome in either case are the absence of adequate personnel to conduct the search and the delay involved.

5. Search on the wharves prior to embarkation would not be a sufficient measure in itself, since I understand that arms are frequently smuggled on board some time prior to embarkation with the collusion of members of the crew and even of the compradore's staff. It would seem, then, that the only really effective measure would be a thorough search of the ship itself prior to sailing. But it will be recalled that the commission which enquired into the "Sunning piracy, while recom- mending inter alia that the Hong Kong Government should endeavour to induce the authorities at the coast ports to make the searching at those ports more effective, stated in the body of their report (the 19th April, 1927) the view that "in the conditions of modern trade effective searching on board the ship is practically impossible. In port all the ship's personnel is particularly busy; time is of value and the ship is a hive of humanity, stevedores, coolies, passengers, agents, messengers, all jostling each other. The decks are a litter of cargo; and cargo boats and sampans of all descriptions necessarily cluster thickly alongside . . . . A really effective search would entail such a large staff or so much delay, probably both, as to make it to all intents and purposes impossible. I would draw your attention in this connexion to the statement in the enclosed despatch from His Majesty's consul- general at Shanghai that the effective searching of a coasting vessel of average tonnage cannot be carried out in less than twenty-four hours, and that even where a sufficient search party was available the detention of vessels for this period would cause serious congestion in the shipping of the port.

6. There remains the question of staff. The conditions obtaining at the time of embarkation clearly make it impossible to expect either the ships officers or the Indian guards carried in accordance with the Hong Kong Piracy Prevention Regulations to carry out an effective search.

7. The only Chinese authority at present entitled to conduct any search on board British vessels is the Maritime Customs. But, apart from the fact that the Customs is a revenue-collecting service rather than a preventive force, it has not at present the necessary staff to undertake a detailed examination of every vessel; and as it is regarded as a foreign institution any extension of its functions would scarcely receive favourable consideration under existing conditions, and it is in the highest degree unlikely that it would be allowed the special armed force which would be necessary for the purpose.

8. The question of allowing the local police to assist in searching has been

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* Not printed.