CO129-547-3 China Piracy- anti piracy guards 25-1-1934 - 3-12-1934 — Page 23

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9. In spite of these regulations piracies continue, and

in some cases pirates have landed in close proximity to the

shore guards. It was felt, therefore, that the present

arrangements were insufficient and that something much more

detailed and drastic was necessary to fix responsibility, and

not until considerable tightening up was effected on the

shore-side would anything be achieved, as the final line of

retreat of the pirate was left practically open.

10. I suggested that they should look back to the method

adopted on the West River, which to a very large extent

stopped piracy on the river and delta. The method there

adopted was for the magistrate of the district to co-opt all

the head men and the elders of the villages and make them

responsible that no piratical acts were committed by people

in their villages and also that a careful census should be

taken so as to make them quickly aware of the fact that

bandits or pirates were probably in the village.

By this

means certain villages were gradually marked down and in due

course operations were carried out against them by Chinese

troops in co-operation with our Gunboats. By these means

many pirates were killed and captured. In one case the

magistrate himself disappeared and in other cases one or two

of the head men found things so unhealthy that they also

disappeared.

11.

I mentioned that only last year Marshal Chan Chai

Tong in conversation with Sir Miles Lampson had stated that

the way to eliminate pirates was to burn their villages.

12. If the Marshal could be persuaded to put into

operation some such scheme as outlined in paragraph 10 and

d

would issue an evict that failure in any district would be

met with severe punishment, such as the burning of the

/villages