CANTON
961
fell into their possession. Chen retired to Waichow; the Civil Governor had fled 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 permit, 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 for the suppression of the revolt and the annihila- tion of the Volunteer Corps. Accordingly, on October 15th the whole commercial district of Saikwan, which the volunteers had barricaded for defence, was surrounded by Sun's overwhelming forces. There was desperate fighting in the streets for several hours. Incendiary gangs assisted the Government forces, and several hundred houses were destroyed by fire. Within about twenty-four hours the Volunteers were dispersed and the revolt was suppressed. Trustwortly figures as to the casualties in this conflict are not obtainable, but a conservative estimate puts the casualties in the neighbourhood of a thousand, while the material damage done was estimated at about $20,000,000. After the affray Sun mulcted the merchants in heavy fines. This did not promote happier relations, and when Sun Yat-sen departed in November to participate in the conferences for the re-establishment of peace and good government in China, it brought a great sense of relief in business circles though little improvement was noticeable in the administration of Canton under Mr. Hu Han-min down to the end of the year.
Another disgraceful episode of the year was a dastardly attempt to assassinate M. Merlin the Governor-General of Indo-China. The French community were enter- taining His Excellency at a dinner in the Victoria Hotel on the Shameen on the night of June 19th, when an Annamite threw a bomb into the room through the open window. Though the assassin missed his mark, he succeeded in killing five French residents and seriously injuring others. The miscreant himself was drowned in the river while trying to evade capture.
Early in January, 1925, Sun Yat-sen, while still attending the Peace Conference in Peking, was reported to be seriously ill and on March 12th, news of his death was received in Canton. Hostilities commenced between the Kuomintang forces and those of Chen Chiung-ming in February. Under General Chiang Kai-shek who commanded the Russian instructed and officered Whampoa Cadets, remarkable progress was made along the East River and Swatow was finally captured. The troops of Chen's party were utterly demoralized and retreated to the borders of Kiangsi and Fukien. During the absence of the Cantonese armies, however, the Yunnanese and Kwangsi troops under General Yang Hsi-min and Liu Chen-huan returned from the East River front to Canton, where, declaring that the Kuomintang party was introducing Bolshevik principles, they seized the city north of the river, the Honam quarter south of the river remaining in the hands of General Li Fuk-lam, who remained faithful to the Kuomintang cause. Hu Han-min, the Civil Governor, fled to Whampoa. On the return of the army from Swatow a battle took place in which General Chiang Kai- shek's cadets with the help of their Russian leaders crossed the river and signally defeated the Yunnanese and Kwangsi soldiers in the streets of Canton. With their entry into the city it appeared only too evident that Bolshevism had become the policy of the Kuomintang. Especially against the British and Hongkong, which had been believed by the Kuomintang to be sympathetic not only to the Chen Chiung-ming but also to the Yunnanese and Kwangsi parties, was a bitter propaganda directed. The intensity of anti-foreign feeling expressed, combined with atrocities against the defeated Yunnanese actually witnessed by Europeans from the Shameen. side of the Defence Creek, caused the greatest alarm among all foreign residents. Following on the incident of the 30th May, at Shanghai where the Municipal Police fired on a crowd mainly composed of students and many were killed and wounded, a mass demonstra- tion was organised in Canton against the 'Imperialistic Policy' of England, America