The average man knows nothing about pirates from first hand—we are, of course excluding our Chinese friends who ply a trade in small fry of craft.and from time to time get plundered by the rovers of coast and creek.. We know that these pirates exist in numbers, and every now -and again an official calls for money from the. provincial treasury so that he may set about been allowed to run so long. But we think it will be agreed that enough has now been said. Of the main issue, the conduct of Lascars in times of danger, the moral appears to be the usual "gold and silver shield" one. It largely depends on_ personal experience. There are those who can testify to admirable conduct on the part of Lascars on more than one occasion. Some other people have been less fortunate in their experiences. We do not imagine that Lascars would be the only race who would sometimes behave well sometimes not. But the fact that a great company like the P. & O. has employed them regularly on its ships for many decades is surely proof presumptive in their favour. As regards the Egypt, it will have been seen already that the passengers on their return to London were much more, guarded respecting the allegations of panic than the French newspaper first quoted. The fact is probably that at such times the only trustworthy witnesses are the European ship's officers who being used to the sea are likely to take note more coolly than passengers of what occurs, and their story will not be heard until the official inquiry.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.