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5. I also called his attention to the case of the S.S. "Nanchang" which was pirated off Newchwang on 30th March, 1933, that being an externál piracy on a ship anchored near the river bar.
6. Mr. Swire stuck to his point that the proper way would bẹ for, say, aircraft to appear on the scene while the pirates were paddling their way ashore. He said that for instance from Hong Kong they could get there before the pirates got ashore, if they started when tje pirates left the steamer. It is difficult to deal ade quately with that sort of idiotic remark.
7. He furthermore said that his views were those which I told him were also held by the officers of their ships. that it would be a lementable thing for the idea to get about, firstly that Englishmen should not resist the capture of their ships by pirates, as had been suggested, and secondly that it should be generally known up and down the coast that His Majesty's Navy and Fleet Air Arm would not go to the rescue of the passengers or to arrest the pirates. idea would be to let them go quietly away.
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8. Furthermore, it one attacks a boat which is paddling to the shore it may only contain some of the pirates. Then, I supposed, that according to Mr. Swire the remaining pirates onboard would immediately murder all the passengers.
9. My own interpretation of the situation is that Mr. Swire and his Company are very sore because they have for years past failed to provide adequate grilling and guards,etc., but at last their hand has been forced by the Tungchow", 1935, Firacy, when Messrs. Butterfield and Swire sent some 70 school children off in their ship without adequate guards and with most incomplete grilling, and that they are conscious of their delinquency is shown by the fact that they are spending over $28,000 in increasing the protection of that particular ship. They also, of course, persisted previously for years in protesting that the British Government should provide guards against internal piracy and lost their law case and appeal on this subject.
10. I asked Mr. Swire if he would be so good as to commit his ideas to writing. His manner immediately changed,
"No", and he said that that was not his responsibility. I replied, "it is my responsibility, and when you, as a representative of large shipping interests on the China coast,
I am naturally make these grave statements of opinion to me anxious to know precisely what it's you mean.
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11. I am afraid Mr. Swire will not produce such a memorandum. He told me however, that he was going home and that he would get his firm to raise the question with H.M. Government as to whether the Navy or the Royal Air Force should deal with piracy !!! As Mr. Swire knows so little about the subject, notwithstanding his high position in his firm, I am afraid that no good will come out of such action on the part
of his firm.
12.
I think it would be in the highest degree deplorable if anyone were to make statements, say, in the House of Commons, or to write to the Fress, suggesting that one way of pirates saving their skins would be to murder
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