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1719
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1849
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Times.
419
17.9.1909.
AN ANTI-BRITISH BOYCOTT ON THE
YANG-TSZE.
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.)
SHANGHAI, SEPT. 18,
The boycott of the British shipping companies trading on the Yang-tsze River, which was initiated by the Kiukiang Native Chamber of Commerce in the middle of August as reprisals for the alleged assault by Police Inspector Mears on a Chinese coolie resulting in the latter's death, continues unchecked. Shippers are warned by the Chambers against the use of British steamers. Evidence of the absence of any genuine resentment on the part of the merchants is afforded by surreptitious consignments of cargo in assumed names, as also by the fact that Messrs. Butterfield's steamers plying on the Poyang Lake are not included in the boycott as there are no other available means of transport there. Mears has already been discharged after a preliminary examination before the Kiukiang Consular Court, and the suggestion that he should be retried by the Shanghai Supreme Court is deprecated here on the grounds that such a course would appear to be a concession to unjustifiable clamour as in the Fatshan incident.
It is instructive to compare the attitude of the Japanese towards a similar movement directed by the student classes as a protest against the action of the Japanese Government in regard to the Antung-Mukden Railway. The Shanghai Taotai under Japanese pressure issues to-day a proclamation threatening punishment of the ringleaders and participants in the anti-Japanese boycott.