Copy.
Orig negd.
On
527018/28
8
Extract from secret despatch from the Officer Administering
the Government of Hong Kong dated 20th August, 1928.
42
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The authorities continue to manifest what appears
to be a genuine desire for the suppression of piracy. The Bias Bay area is now well patrolled and reports of piracies elsewhere although still numerous are less frequent than
hitherto. The disbandment of irregulars is being continued and recently the disarmament has been reported of a body of
men under one Yuen Ha-kau, a notorious bandit chief who
maintained himself for many years in the mountains of Tung Kyun until he and his band were enlisted into the army early in the present year. These irregular bodies although sometimes dignified by the name of 'divisions' are in fact small and all the troops in the province may now be said to be under the command of one or other of the four principal Commanders. Only one serious outbreak has been reported during the past month. A communist rising supported by deserters from the army of Cheng Tsim occurred in Southern Hunan which was suppressed by Fan Shek-sang and the North River army after some fighting. There are however rumours current that an insurrection on a large scale is being planned to take place as soon as the rice harvest is in. Meanwhile the Canton Police have not been inactive and according to a report in the Vernacular press a large number of persons belonging to the Railwaymen's Mechanics' and Oil Pressers Unions were arrested on 10th August on a charge of plotting a communist rising, the report adds that some 50 persons were shot as a
result of this raid.
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