'The attack on the L-C. S. 'Tuckwo on Wednesday' night will, we hope, lead to a searching. inquiry into the conditions under which British vessels ply on the Yangtze and a better understanding position of for officers, than prevails at present. It is not fair that the latter should have to do their duty in the uncertainty and often very real danger which attends now. Who the authors of the outrage on the Tuckwo wer, nobody, at least no foreigner, can say. The prevailing belief is that the men who raided the Tuckwo and the men who kept firing from the shore were rival gangs of opium dealers born after the same consignment of opium. This theory is supported by the manner in which the story of two criminals on board who had to be arrested was dropped and the accuracy with which the gang went straight to where the opium was hidden. If they were, as they said, water police of the Kiangsu Provincial Government, their conduct opening fire on the ship as they did was the more disgraceful. What has become of the often promised protection to be afforded to foreigners in this country? But whoever the men were the raid was unpardonable and it! is only through good luck that many more people were not wounded or killed.
Elsewhere we deal with the question of guards on the Shanghai-Hankow run. Japanese ships carry them in abundance; British ships cannot get guards even when conveying large masses of treasure. The fault, it need hardly be said, is not with the Navy, which would be glad enough to help, but with the Home Government. This brings up the whole question of policy by which British shipping men are the sufferers. Not long ago the now common Chinese practice of searching ships attracted official attention, and it has been impressed upon British shipowners that they should strongly assert their right of immunity from search except by officers of the Customs. But how are shipmasters to do this? They are continually being searched by all sorts of soi distants officials: if they resist, they stand an excellent chance of being shot; alternatively, they niay find their ship boycotted all up and down the river. Again, take the notorious smuggling of opium which indeed is hardly to be called smuggling so openly is it conducted: Not long ago the attention of British shipping companies was drawn to this scandal and it was intimated that strict injunctions should be given to captains and officers to allow no opium to be carried
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.