CO129-553-3 Anti-piracy measures 7-3-1935 - 4-11-1935 — Page 18

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grilled area.

3. Armed Guards.

Mr. Gent quoted the opinion of a former

Chief Inspector of Police at Hong Kong to the effect that the important consideration was not the nationality of the guards, as Butterfield and Swire contended, but

their training and discipline: the Conference agreed

with this view. It appeared that while the guards (Indians and White Russians) trained by the Hong Kong

police were efficient, the same could not be said of

those provided from other sources, e.g. Shanghai, and some consideration was given to the possibility of

persuading the Shipping Companies to set up a pool of

guards, suitably trained by some local authority, either

at Shanghai or elsewhere, or, alternatively, to increase

the number at Hong Kong and draw all the guards from that

source. Further discussion revealed, however, that any

such scheme was not without its difficulties and would

probably not be readily acceptable to the Companies;

there seemed reason to hope, on the other hand, that

indirectly they might be induced to effect improvements if

a system of ships' certificates as to the degree of

protection against piracy was introduced. (See next paragraph).

4. Grant of Ships' Certificates as to the degree

of anti-piracy protection afforded.

It was agreed that a system of granting

certificates to ships which were adequately protected

against piracy, if suitably represented to the companies,

might well meet with their approval and would probably,

through force of competition, result in a widespread

improvement in the protective measures taken. Mr. Graham

was strongly of the opinion, and the conference agreed,

that such a system should be supplementary to, and not

/take