CO129-534-9 Law of Piracy- case of Rex v. Chung Tam Kwong 1-4-1931 - 20-4-1932 — Page 72

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a felonious intention in any place where the Lord

Admiral hath jurisdiction, this is robbery and

piracy." The standard forms of indictments contained

in Archbold's "Criminal Pleasing" include an alleg-

ation of stealing. In the records of this court

there are two interesting indictments to which I

have drawn attention. They are connected with what

are locally known as the "Sunning" and the "Haicning"

piracies. Both indictments were laid under 1 Vict.,

c.88, s.2, which deals with certain violent acts

connected with the crime of piracy. The distinguish-

ing feature between these two occurrences was that

in the case of the "Sunning" the prisoners succeeded

in dispossessing the master and obtaining control

of the ship (which was subsequently retaken from

them by the gallant action of the ship's officers)

while the attack upon the "Haiching" was foiled

and the attackers at no time controlled the bridge.

The indictment in connection with the "Sunning" was

filed in March, 1927, and that in connection with

the "Haiching" in February, 1930. Both indictments

were filed by the present learned Chief Justice,

Sir Joseph Kemp, who was then Attorney General. He

charged the first set of prisoners with "Piracy

with assault with intent to murder". In the

particulars of offence he set out the acts of violence

and after so doing proceeded "and than and there

committed the crime of piracy in respect of the

said ship by sêtaling with force and violence the

said ship". By way of contract, the later indict-

ment alleged "Wounding persons on board a ship