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of an island under siege. Canton remained remarkably quiet when the general rising occurred. In April the Tartar-General had been shot; in May a revolutionary crowd made an assault on the Viceroy's yamen, but stern military measures prevented a general rising. Later in the year the new Tartar-General was assassinated by a bomb as he landed in Canton, and on another occasion an attempt, which proved nearly successful, was made to assassinate Admiral Li, who so effectually checked the rising in May. When the revolution broke out on a grand scale in October, the Viceroy, recognising the hopelessness of resistance with troops honeycombed with sedition and with a popula- tion unanimously in sympathy with revolution, readily agreed to the transfer of the Government to the revolutionary leaders, and the independence of the province was thus attained without bloodshed. In July, 1913, when a rebellion broke out in several provinces against what was described as the dictatorship of Yuan Shih-kai, the Tutuli, Chen Chiung-ming, proclaimed the independence of the province. The ex-viceroy Tchen came down to Canton as the generalissimo of the rebel forces to organise an expedition to proceed north to punish Yuan Shih-kai, but he failed to win over General Lung Chi- kwang, of Kwangsi, who remained loyal to the Central Government, and marched with a large force upon Canton. As this force approached the city the Tutuh and the Generalissimo tled, and on reaching Canton General Lung cancelled the declara- tion of independence, and gradually restored peace and order in the city, where much looting and some fighting took place prior to and for some time after his arrival. In 1916 when the troubles arose over Yuan Shih-kai's attempt to ascend the Dragon throne, Kwangtung again declared its independence, but this did not prevent bloodshed. General Lung was denounced as a traitor to the Republic by General Tchen, who attacked Canton at the head of a large army. There was serious fighting and for a number of weeks all business was suspended. There was considerable destruction of property and much loss of life before matters were settled by General Lung's transference to another post. The political situation since 1917 has been very confused. A Military Government was formed in the interests of Constitutionalism, and a com- plete severance of relations followed between the North and the South. Spasmodic fighting, the constant movement of troops and rivalries amongst the various leaders in the South have seriously interfered with trade. In 1921 Dr. Sun Yat Sen, whose party had driven out the Kwangsi leaders in the previous year, was proclaimed by his followers President of China." In 1922 Sun went to Kweilin, in Kwangsi, to make preparations for his projected punitive expedition to Peking, but his forces never got within a thousand miles of the city, and the hopes which he had based on his alliance with Chang Tso-lin were destroyed by the defeat of this Tuchun's forces by Wu Pei-fu. In the meantime, Sun had alienated his chief lieutenant, Chen Chiung-ming, by this impossible enterprise, and in the middle of the year Chen's supporters put Sun and his followers in Canton to flight. Sun took refuge on the warships which were attached to his cause, and he went so far as to bombard Canton on one occasion, but without achieving any military result. After remaining on a Chinese warship for some time under the shelter afforded by the Shameen, he left hurriedly on board H.M.S. Moorhen on August 9th to catch an "Empress" liner to Shanghai. Chen remained in Kwangtung, as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, and his nominee, Chan Chik-yue, a merchant of Hongkong, was appointed Civil Governor in September. Early in January, 1923, Dr. Sun's sympathisers sent a force composed of Kwangsi and Yunnanese soldiers to invade Kwangtung, and, owing to the supineness of naval units and the poor resistance offered by the disaffected Cantonese troops, Canton quickly fell into their possession. Chen retired to Waichow; the Civil Governor had flcd some days previously to Hongkong. Sun remained in possession throughout the year and also throughout 1924, despite the fact that his occupation was continually menaced not only by the presence in the East River region of a considerable hostile force under Chen Chiung-ming, which repeated efforts by Sun had failed to disperse, but likewise by formidable opposition to his régime on the part of the merchant class in the city and surrounding districts, provoked by oppressive taxation. In these circumstances, the ranks of the Merchants Volunteer Corps-which had been formed with Government approval some years before, with a view to ensuring greater security against plunder by pirates-increased to very large dimensions and Sun began to see in it a serious menace to his authority. When a large consignment of arms and ammunition, imported under Government per- mit, was seized by Dr. Sun's orders there was open revolt by the merchants. Business was entirely suspended for several days and was only resumed on Sun promising to release the arms. There was great delay, however, in fulfilling the promise, and public feeling became highly incensed against Dr. Sun, who finally gave orders to his troops
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