COPY.-
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Enclosure No. 4 to Mr. Scott's Despatch of 31st December, 1900.
Copy of Record of the evidence of the prisoner Yang Hsiang Pu sent up by the Nam Hoi Magistrate and examined by the Head Police Office. Yang Hsiang Pu said:
I am a native of Tan Ton village in the district of Nam Hoi. My age is 45 years. My father is dead; my mother's maiden name was Chan. I have no brothers. I am married, my wife's family name being Feng, and we have sons and daughters. I was formerly a student of medicine in the establishment of one Chia, called the Po Chi Medical Hall. Afterwards, I opened a doctor's establishment in the Hua Wang Street outside the West Gate of Hsiang Shan District City, and am now practising as a Doctor in Canton outside the South Gate in the Ma Ton Chih Chieh. I have been acquainted with Yang Chu Yun, Sien Yu Cheng, Shih Ching Ju, Si Chi Tang, Chen Kuei Shih, Wing Tuo Fu, Teng Jui Nan.
In the 7th moon, date not remembered, but some time after the 10th day (4th August), I, having business, went to Hongkong and met Yang Chu Yun at the Office of the "Chinese Daily Press", in which paper Chen Kuei Chih had a share. Chen Kuei Shih and Shih Ching Ju were with us at table, and they put heads together and talked secrets. I asked Sien Yu Cheng about it, and Yang Chu Yun, hearing this, forthwith told Shih Ching Ju, and they all said that I too was a man who could join in with them, that there was no need of reticence, and that they could tell me all. They invited me to sit with them, and they said that this present time of disorder in the North furnished just the opportunity to effect the assassination of all the Officials of Kwang Tung Province and loot all the Treasuries, and the houses of the rich in Canton, thus at once acquiring wealth. I was smitten with fear and dared not consent with them. Then the party broke up.
I at once returned to Canton, and it was not till the middle decade of the 8th moon (September 4–13), exact day not remembered, that Shih Ching Ju arrived back from Macao and came to my Medical Hall, and said that Yang Chu Yun had the day before come to his place at Macao and said that he was determined to carry out the aforesaid plot of assassination and that he had already a scheme in which he wanted me to take a hand. He specially told Shih Ching Ju to come and ask me to go along to Hongkong.
The following day, I reached Hongkong. While we were in the Office of the "Chinese Daily Press", Yang Chu Yun came back from No. 11 in the Chish Tze Street, a house rented for residence by a Japanese, to the Office where I saw him. There were a good many people about the place, and we signed to each other not to speak of the secret plot.
Subsequently, Yang Chu Yun took the party to the third and highest story of the Newspaper premises and discussed secretly with me, Shih Ching Ju, and the others, saying that the killing of the Officials was really a difficult matter to find men to accomplish. Further, the Officials in Canton being numerous, it was impossible to take action against them all at one time; a very good plan would be to conceal dynamite and effect a number...
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