CO129-547-3 China Piracy- anti piracy guards 25-1-1934 - 3-12-1934 — Page 48

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3.

In 1931, an action was brought in the

High Court of Justice by the Chine Navigation Company, claiming that the Crown had no right to exact payments

for the provision of military guards, but the action

was dismissed and the dismissal was upheld by the Court

of Appeal.

4.

The view of the Admiralty has been

and still is that a proper system of grilles, coupled

with the use of armed police guards, is an adequate

protection against "internal piracy" and that the use

of naval or military guards, which can only be provided

at the expense of much inconvenience to naval or

military arrangements, is not therefore called for,

except possibly as a purely temporary measure to meet

an emergency. The provision of an armed police force,

which My Lords understand has worked satisfactorily in

ships trading in South China waters, is also very much

more economical.

5.

In these circumstances, enquiries

have been initiated locally as to the possibility of

the establishment of a force at Shanghai under the

control of the Shanghai Municipal Police on the lines

of the force at Hong Kong, and assuming, as there is no

reason to suppose is not the case, that there is no

inherent difficulty in making such arrangements, My

Lords consider this, with the provision of grilles as

necessary, to be the proper solution of the question.

6.