126
He went on to say,
JAMES HAYES
During my time in Kowloon territory, i.e., from 1893 to 1901, piracies were so common that we regarded it as extraordinary if a day passed without one. Indeed, it was the daily routine for junk masters to report at the Customs Station that they had been pirated and all of their cargo looted.
Customs duty was 'practically confined to chasing pirates and smugglers', and Arlington states that 'at one time I had no less than sixty pirates chained to old cannon to prevent them from escaping pending their transfer to Canton for trial'.*
Whilst some villages were blameless and the victims of raids and assaults, there were others whose innocence was doubtful. Arlington mentions one case in which pirates had disappeared with an entire cargo consisting of 250 huge vats of indigo weighing as much as 500 lbs each vat, besides 100 head of cattle and 500 pigs, of which there was no trace when a Customs cruiser arrived on the scene only two hours after the piracy was reported by signal at Cheung Chau. It was, he says, 'a safe bet that the pirates came from these villages, and had secret places to hide their booty where it was safe from discovery'.2 The villages in question were on the mainland but he does not say where.
In the wider area, the reports of the British Consuls on the trade of Canton, Amoy, Sam Shui and Pak Hoi in the 1890s—all save the second within the Kwangtung Province—reveal a disturbed situation. One Canton report comments, "The old free-booting spirit still survives among many who are now apparently peaceful traders and fishermen, of which we occasionally get startling proof in some unexpected daring act of piracy on the high seas or along the coast.3 His colleague's report from Pak Hoi was more down-right. 'Piracy
'Piracy is in the blood of the race. A glance through the year's diary shows a monotonous record of petty coast raids, hoverings of pirate junks (which still terrorise the neighbouring coastline) and robberies of every degree of dignity from the sacking of the larger pawnshops to the plunder of a returned emigrant from the Straits or Sumatra',4
Arlington's evidence shows that the Hong Kong region was scarcely better in these respects than any other. Thus it is not
1 Arlington, p. 171. 2 Arlington, p. 163. 3 FO Report 1606. 4 FO Report 1983.
126
He went on to say,
JAMES HAYES
During my time in Kowloon territory, ie, from 1893 to 1901, piracies were so common that we regarded it as extraordinary if a day passed without one. Indeed, it was the daily routine for junk masters to report at the Customs Station that they had been pirated and all of their cargo looted.
Customs duty was 'practically confined to chasing pirates and smugglers', and Arlington states that 'at one time I had no less than sixty pirates chained to old cannon to prevent them from escaping pending their transfer to Canton for trial'.*
Whilst some villages were blameless and the victims of raids and assaults, there were others whose innocence was doubtful. Arlington mentions one case in which pirates had disappeared with an entire cargo consisting of 250 huge vats of indigo weighing as much as 500 lbs each vat, besides 100 head of cattle and 500 pigs, of which there was no trace when a Customs cruiser arrived on the scene only two hours after the piracy was reported by signal at Cheung Chau. It was, he says, 'a safe bet that the pirates came from these villages, and had secret places to hide their booty where it was safe from discovery'.2 The villages in question were on the mainland but he does not say where.
In the wider area, the reports of the British Consuls on the trade of Canton, Amoy, Sam Shui and Pak Hoi in the 1890s—all save the second within the Kwangtung Province-reveal a disturbed situation. One Canton report comments, "The old free-booting spirit still survives among many who are now apparently peaceful traders and fishermen, of which we occasionally get startling proof in some unexpected daring act of piracy on the high seas or along the coast.3 His colleague's report from Pak Hoi was more down- right. 'Piracy
'Piracy is in the blood of the race. A glance through the year's diary shows a monotonous record of petty coast raids, hover- ings of pirate junks (which still terrorise the neighbouring coastline) and robberies of every degree of dignity from the sacking of the larger pawnshops to the plunder of a returned emigrant from the Straits or Sumatra',4
Arlington's evidence shows that the Hong Kong region was scarcely better in these respects than any other. Thus it is not
1 Arlington, p. 171. 2 Arlington, p. 163. 3 FO Report 1606. 4 FO Report 1983.
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