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members of the Kiu Kiang Defence Force, a small volunteer group recruited from the foreign residents. Some of the men were veterans of the Great War, and the force had originally been armed with rifles and Lewis guns provided by the Navy; however, to avoid all possible accident, these lethal weapons had been withdrawn and replaced with truncheons. Men were despatched to close the Concession gates so as to keep out accessions to the rioters from those directions, and by the exercise of a good-humoured restraint and some sang-froid the rioters were gradually dispersed and shepherded away. By nightfall all was quiet again at the cost of a few broken heads and windows, but the atmosphere remained dangerously charged with emotion.
The Consul ruled that the women and children must be evacuated that very night in a river steamer, which he had caused to be held up for the purpose. I dashed off to our small flat overlooking the tennis courts at the back of the Concession to warn my wife. We had also our two infants, the one in arms and the other just able to walk; and their dear old amah, of course, had plenty of advice to give. During the early days, while the Revolutionary Army was still attacking the Northern troops who held the city, there was a certain amount of indiscriminate shooting and shots fell amongst the houses in the Concession. One came in through our front door and down the hall. The old amah then used carefully to drape a layer of blankets on the window side of the children's cots "to keep out the bullets", as she would ingenuously explain.
On a large verandah outside the flat where a good view could be obtained of the back gate, the Navy had mounted a Lewis gun and installed an inlying piquet. My wife arranged to cook meals for the sailors, and what with the assistance of an occasional bottle of beer from the Club over the road, they voted that life in Kiu Kiang was not so bad. It was a change from the routine of shipboard and had one unforeseen result; the sailors made so strong an impression on our infants that when he grew up nothing would satisfy the elder boy but that he should join the Navy.
Now the sailors volunteered to assist in the packing, but time was short and there was little room on the steamer for other than the bare essentials. It was more than any Chinese coolie's life was worth to be seen carrying baggage for the foreigners, and so with naval assistance husbands and bachelors helped each other to get the boxes down to the ship.