CO129-541-1 Piracy- case of Rex v. Chung Tam Kwong 29-7-1932 - 3-2-1933 — Page 68

CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案 All

insurance.

(iv) Kennedy L.J.while approving the above definition

also approved the definition given in 8.94 of "Carver's Carriage of Goods by Sea", which runs

"Firaoy is forcible robbery at sea whether "committed by marauders from outside the "ship or by mariners or passengers within "it. The essential element is that they "violently dispossem the master, and "afterwards carry away the ship itself,

"or any of the goods, with a felonious intent"

In the recent case of China Navigation Company, Limited

v. Attorney General also, the Court of ppeal appears

to have contemplated that piracy might consist in coming

on board a ship with the intention of ultimately over-

powering the crew and seizing the vessel and before any

actual robbery had occurred, but there is no specific

dictum to that effect. Moreover the mind of the court

was not directed to the point, and the question to be

decided was a totally different one not involving any

determination of the meaning of piracy. Again in the

Magellan Pirates (1853, 1 3p. Soc. and Ad.81)

Dr. Lushington, after remarking (p.83) that "in the ad-

"ministration of our criminal law, general'y speaking,

"all persona are held to be pirates who are found guilty

"of piratical acts; and piractical acts are robbery and

"murder (13) upon the high seas", went on (p.84) to

approve the definition contained in hussell on Crimes to

the effect that

"The offence of piracy at common law consists "in committing those acts of robbery and "depredation upon the high seas which, if

committed...

13. It looks as if he thought that piracy might consist

in either robbery or murder.

69

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