the times | Monday July 27 2020 2GM 25
News
Chickens served at Nando’s will be fed
on insects and algae under a trial
scheme to cut carbon emissions.
The South African brand, which has
930 restaurants worldwide, wants to
lower its reliance on soya-based chick-
en feed, the second biggest contributor
to deforestation after the beef industry.
The trial is part of an ambitious plan
for Nando’s to cut its carbon emissions
to net zero and halve the carbon foot-
print of its average meal over the next
ten years. Nando’s said it wanted to be
Nando’s chickens to eat algae
the first restaurant chain to combine
improvements in environmental sus-
tainability with animal welfare.
Environmentalists have long recom-
mended insects as a sustainable food
source that could help to reduce the
impact of meat and soya production.
Insects contain essential minerals, ami-
no acids and fats, and are easy for
animals to digest. Producing 1kg of
insect protein uses 2 per cent of the land
and 4 per cent of the water associated
with beef production, resulting in 96 per
cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Nando’s also plans to source all its gas
from renewable sources by 2022.Andrew Ellson
Consumer Affairs Correspondent
A tale involving East India Company
sailors and a murdered Chinese cobbler
would not seem out of place in a Jane
Austen novel — a thrilling yarn from
Captain Wentworth or Admiral Croft
in Persuasion or even midshipman
William Price in Mansfield Park.
This is no fiction, however, but a true
story involving Austen’s brother, Cap-
tain Francis William Austen.
Captain Austen’s naval life is known
to have influenced his sister’s writing,
from Captain Wentworth’s career mir-
roring his own, to the names of ships he
had sailed on appearing in her novels.
The navy was often present in south-
east Asia and China, escorting East
India Company ships, particularly dur-
ing wartime. It was this practice, during
the Napoleonic Wars, that led Captain
Austen to become the chief investigator
of an alleged murder in 1810.
Letters to the Admiralty from the
captain, then senior naval officer in
Canton, now known as Guangzhou,
have allowed a team at the National
Archives to piece together the mystery.
When locals complained that three
sailors, possibly British, had come
ashore without authorisation and
killed Hoan a Xing, a shoemaker, in a
drunken brawl, Chinese officials re-
fused to let an East India Company ship
and its cargo set sail until the culprits
had been handed over. With the mon-
soons imminent, the fleet needed to
leave, and Captain Austen was charged
with concluding a murder inquiry while
preserving Anglo-Chinese relations.
Just as it took Captain Wentworth
two attempts to persuade Anne Elliot to
marry him, so it took two attempts for
Captain Austen to persuade the Chi-
Austen, a Chinese
murder and the
art of persuasion
nese to let the fleet leave before any cul-
prit had been handed over. He was re-
fused permission to question a witness
who claimed he could identify the mur-
derer, and his attempts to convince the
viceroy of Canton, as well as the Tartar
military commander, to let him do so
were in vain; his letters were returned
unopened. Unwilling to surrender men
without proof, however, he proposed a
compromise and promised to try any
possible suspects at home after collect-
ing evidence in Canton.
He was a reliable man, known for his
religious views, and the Chinese trusted
him. Once information had been gath-
ered from two Chinese witnesses —
neither of whom had proof — the East
India Company and the navy set sail.
As a man of principle, like Mansfield
Park’s William Price, he kept his word.
Captain Austen held a court martial in
St Helena for three company men
aboard the Cumberland, who had in-
deed fought with Chinese locals.
Upon examining the ship’s log, he
found that the ship’s butcher had told
the captain’s steward that three sailors
had murdered a Chinese man. These
three had been held to account by the
Cumberland’s captain, had denied
murder, and one had been whipped for
possession of a dagger.
The court martial resulted in more
confusion; the butcher decided it had
been only a fight and the men claimed
they were defending a friend. Unable to
determine guilt but with a sense of duty
to the Chinese, Captain Austen took
them on to his ship to try them again at
home. Their fate is not known. On his
return to Chawton, the family cottage,
it is likely the air would have been filled
with the tale of the Chinese murder.
Leading article, page 31Sara Tor
Captain Francis William Austen, brother of Jane, was the senior naval officer in Canton when British sailors allegedly murdered a Chinese man, and had to maintain relations while trying to pursue justice
ALAMYtions whiletrying to pursue justiceALAMY