ACKD. BY
BY Z
JOHN SWIRE & SONS LTD
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS.
TEMSELOAF, FEN, LONDON"
RECEIVES
10JUN 1931
COL. OFFICE
London
de
27
zz
8. Billiter Square:
June 9th, 1981.
dessful.
of 4 1/2.
до
120
airy
DAY
sir,
Piracy Guards.
We are in receipt of your letter 82764/1/31 of June 8th and must thank you for communicating the contents of the despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong.
We feel that it must not be forgotten, that the ship's officers are in charge of the ship and therefore naturally the superior officers of police sergeants in charge of the guard. The words "conciliatory attitude" therefore hardly
seem applicable.
We are however pleased to know from recent correspondence from our Eastern houses and from conversations with our Marine Superintendent now on leave, that the piracy guards are much more efficient than at first, and in this connection the following extract from a letter of April 28th may be of interest:-
"Russian & Chinese Guards. I observed these on "the three C.N.Co. ships by which I travelled. They "are a great improvement on the old system - neatly "uniformed, drilled and keeping proper stations. "Ship's safety regulations, closing of doors and grilles "are also properly attended to which makes for much "better discipline. The Russian non-coms. appear to "take a pride in their work and according to Captain
Johnstone, make a much better job of it than European "non-coms., who are noisy, lazy and dirty in their "habits. The Russian non-coms. also speak to the guards "in Chinese in a good many cases and this also makes for "a proper understanding with the men, to which the European "non-coms, do not trouble to attain. Of course on the "Shanghai/Canton line we never have had European non-coms. "with Chinese guards."
The Under Secretary of State,
Colonial Office, S.W.1.
We are,
Sir,
Your obedient
Your obedient servants,
Volve turres tom
Managers, China Navigation Co. Ltd.
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