自英國取得香港後，如何擴展並確保香港與中國沿海各通商口岸的航運路 線，即成為英國在香港殖民統治與在華商務發展的重要課題。但隨著中國局勢的 動盪不安，出現了嚴重的盜匪問題，尤其是馳騁在東南沿海的海盜勢力，往往伺 機攻擊英國船隻、搶奪財物，威脅到英國在華航運事業的安全。中國海盜又適應 了輪船時代的新環境，調整攻擊模式，不再依循傳統的海盜劫掠模式，乘坐木帆 船從外部攻擊商船，而是化整為零，假扮成一般乘客，挾帶武器登船，待輪船航 行至外海等公海水域時，再伺機發動突襲，制服船員，洗劫乘客財物。這種新型 態的海盜攻擊模式，被稱為「內部海盜」模式，但因其發動攻擊的水域多半在公 海之上，故又稱為「公海海盜」案件。為了反制公海海盜的攻擊，英國駐香港總 督府規定，凡航行於危險水域的英商船隻，均須隨船部署印度武裝警衛，以防範 偽裝乘客的海盜從內部發動突襲、控制船隻。但是由於印度武裝警衛防盜成效不佳，到了 1920年代末期，香港總督府已不再強制規定英國商船在航行危險水域時 必須部署隨船印度武裝警衛。不過事實上，多數英國船商為了確保航行安全，仍 然雇用武裝警衛駐防商船。而且武裝警衛的來源也更加多元化，除了強化與新編 印度武裝警衛外，香港警察也另外組訓了白俄武裝警衛、華北武裝警衛等。這些 武裝警衛也就成為1930年代以降英國在華航運事業中最主要的防盜力量之一。

After taking over of Hong Kong, the Britain devoted to developing and maintaining the trade routes between Hong Kong and the coastal treaty ports of China. But with the deterioration of China’s satiation, rampant piratical activities became serious threats to the British shipping security in East Asian waters. Instead of assaulting the ships from outside, Chinese pirates changed their attacking models to correspond to the age of steamers by boarding ships as passengers and launching raids from inside after ships navigating on High Sea. This kind of piracy was also called as “inside piracy” or “High Sea piracy”. The Hong Kong Government regulated that all ships sailing through the “danger zone” should deploy Indian armed guards trained by the Hong Kong police to prevent Chinese pirates attacking from inside. Due to the inefficiency of Indian guards, the Hong Kong government finally revoked the Piracy Prevention Ordinance of deploying Indian armed guards on board in the end of the 1920s. However, many British shipping companies still chose employ armed guards for dealing with the possible piratical raids. Furthermore, in addition to Indian guards, the Hong Kong government also offered other options such as Russian guards and Chinese guards in the1930s.