CO129-507-4 China- anti-piracy precautions- question of compensation to families of British officers killed or wounded 5-10-1928 - 2-1-1929 — Page 39

Copy.

(F 6297/43/10)

Se rice Dept.

39

Navigators and General Insurance Company, Limited.

23, Leadenhall Street,

E.C, 3,

14th November, 1928.

Your Reference F 5411/43/10.

Sir,

re Piracy in China Seas

Further to our letter of the 6th October and your

reply of the 10th October, we beg to inform you that we have

recently received a cablegram from the China Coast Officers' Guild in Hongkong, (with which organization we are, together with the Marine Engineers' Guild of China, federated,) to the

effect that the China Coast Officers' Guild "anticipates

withdrawal of guards and asks us to strongly oppose such

withdrawal, indicating that British Officers' lives are at

stake. TT

We feel that it is highly improbable that our friends

in Hongkong would send a cable in such terms unless they nad

very strong reasons for believing that there was a very

definite probability that the system of guards was about to

be withdrawn. We understand they are in very close touch

with both the Naval and Military Authorities in Hongkong.

We therefore, on behalf of some nine thousand officers

of the Merchant Navy, venture to urge in the strongest

possible terms that instructions be given from London that all

vessels exposed to the risk of piracy in Eastern Waters be

The Under-Secretary of State,

Foreign Office,

LONDON.

S.W.1.

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