Feb. 4.
The cool presence of mind of Captain Smart, the unavailing bravery and self-sacrifice of the gallant Russian soldier, Sergeant Ivan Tikhomiroft who was so well supported by his comrades includ~ ing the wounded Merzliakoff. the prompt resee work of the Royal Navy in locating the missing steamer, thanks chiefly to the reconnaissance of H.MS, Hermes, the admirable conduct of the children and those in charge of them—those were the main factors in averting a ghastly tragedy in the pirating of s. Tungchow last week. The ship herself, veteran at the game, comes In for her share of honours in a grim experience to which she was no stranger. The loss of so valuable a fe as that of Sergeant Tikhomiroff and the wounding of his comrade and of the Second Engineer, Mr. K; Macdonald, were tragic enough episodes, Yet it requires little imagination to realize that had Captain Smart shown less address in handling the emergency and less judgment fu balancing the merits of the course to pursue, many a house in China to-day would have been plunged into mourning. The pirates were adepts at their filthy trade, Their organization was all too efficient, They had the cunning of their kind and also the ruthless cruelty, tempered only by consideration for their own skins.
They were apparently averse. from any unnecessary. i-treatment of their temporary captives, but, it is clear from the narratives received, that they were prepared to. shrink from nothing if they held that murder or massacre served their purpose of escape. Had the worst happened, it is easy to picture the fierceness of the outery which would have been raised, 'Therefore, it must be urged that all responsible for the safety of the China coasts should treat the comparatively fortunate Jot of the Tungchow. as a prosidential warning spurring them to' immediate consideration of the issue involved.
Anti-piracy measures have been Alscussed time and again. Solemn prescriptions have been devised for the evil. Perhaps it were not unfair to say that the continued immunity of the miscreants he Tungchow as hostages of the nations concerned in the trade of China—including China herself—can conceivably confer effectively to produce a common effort in the attainment of commercial profit, without insuperable barriers of: political prejudice, national Jealousy or departmental rigidity. Tt 1s probably well to be @iffident in pressing that possibility of agreement too far, in the light of experience. Still' accomplishments on those lines have been recorded. Yet that nest of pirates, located among the disintegrated granite of the mainland near Bias Bay, can develop and methodically carry plans to dire execution in flagrant defiance of the Government to which they owe allegiance and of the nations which are"prepared to assist that Government in performing an elementary duty to humanity. This criticism fs justified if only because the means for preventing these outrages are so materially superior to the resources of the pirates: For example it is generally agreed that the intelligence service in Hongkong is excellent. The pirates cannot move from Blas coast a reproach which vitally Bay and make their preliminary damages journey to Shanghai without due responsible for its security? warning reaching here. The presence of the Tungchow pirates in this port is believed to have been known to authority here. selecting the Tungchow, the pirates were admittedly acting on inaccurate information, for the result of their enterprise must
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.