Nov. 19.
Five years ago—On December 16, 1921 to be exact—oceurred the piracy of the China Merchants' str, Kwanglee, while on 'a voyage from Amoy' to Homgkong. Previous to "that, there had been no serious piracy on the China Coast since the sacking of the Douglas str, Namoa in 1890, when the pirates behaved with fiendish ruthlessness and cruelty and murdered the! passengers and crew of the! Namoa in a manner that shocked. the civilized world. The Kwang-lee piracy five years ago, daring-planned and boldly executed on the lines we have since come to know so well, and accompanied by bloodshed and murder, netted the pirates booty worth $130,000, and was the precursor of a Tong and practically unbroken sequence of similar outrages, all of them successful and many] accompanied by shooting, bloodshed and loss of innocent lives.
And now comes the latest outrage of all, the piracy on the China Navigation Company's str. Sunning on Monday last, the story of which reads more like old-time fiction than what it really is—hard, incontrovertible fact. That anything in th nature of a genuine piracy on a twentieth century is in itself large scale should occur in the
surprising; but that a long series of such piracies, extending over a period of five years and committed with disconcerting frequency on one of the busiest sea routes of the world should be possible, is as amazing as the correlative fact that until this affair of the Sunning the pirates have almost invariably been completely successful. But, although in the case of the attack on the Sunning the ma-have been ly will pay the utmost penalty of the law, we are as far as ever from any guarantee or even belief that there will be no more attacks on merchant vessels; and the most that can be said of the Sunning affair is that it has checked the ates without in any manner subduing them.
Once more let us refer our critic! piracies that have been com-tions of the raiders but he! article we published on|mitted in Chinese waters during|makes no moan about it and headed "The Rats and|the last five years (we are not|determines to carry on with taking into account the guerilla pirates that infest the Canton Delta and who could be exter-' minated without trouble) have been committed by what is generally admitted and known to be one gang, and one only; having their base of operations at Ping-shan on Bias Bay and thei headquarters in or near the city of Waichow. Of this there is} no shadow of doubt. This territory is under the nominal, and we believe the actual control of the Canton Government, vet from the beginning of the trouble, apart from a minor expedition kong police took part and which was only partly successful, the pirates have been left unmolestled and have come to constitute a grave and ever-present danger }to the whole coasting shipping, trade of South China. It is obvious that something will have ito be done sooner or later, and that the only remedy is ruthless, extermination of the pirates and their headquarters. evitable if piracy is to be suppressed once and for all. The! Canton Government cannot or will not take the necessary' measures, which would be as) much in the interests of Chinese shipping as foreign; and the obvious question arises: Who can and who will? Whether the peculiar political situation prevailing in connexion with Hongkong and Canton has precluded the Hongkong Government from making representations for the approval of a British expedition is not clear; but it appears that little has yet been suggested officially on these lines.
If the Canton authorities are unwilling or unable to exterminate the pirates with their own troops, it surely would not be unreasonable for the British Navy, which is willing and is able to do so, to be called upon' without any' infringement of sovereign rights." Reuter, in a message of yesterday, tells us somewhat cryptically that, "the cleaning out of the pirates' nest in Bias Bay can be effected by!
combined Naval and Military action, that the Kuangtung authorities "require British cooperation for this purpose, but) this ce-operation is not accept-lable to Canton." What is meant by the differentiation between the Kuangtung authorities and) those of Canton is not clear; but: it seems certain that the responible and reasonable Chinese in South China realize and appreciate the great service that the! British forces could render in exterminating the pirates once! and for all. Let us hope that} no petty quibbling over national precedence will prevent the accomplishment of an action which all Chinese, whatever they may: say, must know would be as much to their advantage as to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.