CHINESE PIRATES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1553, 24 September 1912, Page 5

CHINESE PIRATES.

EFFORTS TO EXTERMINATE THEM. By Teleiraph—Press Association—Copyright Pekjng, September 22. The Portuguese authorities at Macao and the Chinese authorities at Canton have agreed to co-operate in the extermination of piracy on the Canton River. A detachment has been sent to surround an island near Colowan that lias leen reported ,as being a piratical stronghold. AUDACIOUS THIEVES. Unwelcome evidence of tho absence of stable government in China (says the London "Telegraph" of July 30). is furnished by the wide prevalence of piracy on the southern coasts. In this region,. of course, pirates have long flourished, but certain recent depredations have been carried out with a coolness and daring which suggests that, in tho estimation of theso gentry, the chances of their being brought to book are even, more remote than under the tardy and half-hearted methods of the old regime. Early in the present month one of the junks belonging to the Asiatic Petroleum Company, containing a large quantity of oil, was captured at a point near the borderland lino between Kiangsu and Chekiang. Having made themselves masters of the vessel, thq pirates calmly sailed her along the coast, stopping at different places, where they sold the oil, and it was thus a week before the company was informed of the loss. Some few days afterwards another oil junk belonging to the same firm was seized in precisely the same manner. Information was laid with' the British authorities in Ningpo and Shanghai, and every effort has been made to trace the pirate 3. As a result, some of the stolen oil has been recovered, but no pirate has been captured. As evidence that tho schemes are well organised, it is mentioned that the Asiatic Petroleum Company has-received a letter from some unknown agent of the marauders in Shanghai explaining the terms on which the oil will be returned. The headquarters of the pirates have been located at a place called Nanhuihsien. described as a hotbed of piracy, and difficult to tackle. As the Chinese, authorities show no great inclination to undertake an undoubtedly dangerous task, it is suggested that the British naval authorities might spare a gunboat to patrol this particular stretch of coast. .It is recalled that, in 1907, when piracy became particularly bad on the West' River and in the Canton delta, and the Chinese authorities failed to improve matters, the British naval authorities look the evil into their own hands and patrolled the delta with destroyers and gun boats to such good purpose that piracy a; a profitable profession soon languished.