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nature. The latest accounts indicate that the town is once more quiet, although no information has been received to say that foreigners have returned from the vessels to their houses.
From the information supplied by the Chinese officials themselves, to which reference is made below, it is evident that an anti-foreign movement was in preparation throughout Hunan. It has partly miscarried, owing to the premature outbreak of riots in Changsha over a grievance between the people and the officials. But directly trouble had arisen the hostility of the populace is turned, as by command, against foreigners.
It will be found that the following letter from our Changsha correspondent embodies the most authoritative account that has yet been received of the riots in Changsha :-
A Graphic Account.
Changsha, April 19, 1910. Wednesday, the 13th April, to Friday, the 15th April, were days that will long be remembered in Changsha. The riots will be marked from the fact that a governor's yamên has been sacked and burnt, and a very extensive series of looting and burning of foreign property has been carried out as almost a by-play of the main aim of
the riot.
That aim was to cheapen rice. It is the old, old story that our history books show us as occurring in the lands of the Mediterranean, and that Carlyle has so picturesquely taught us to connect with the French Revolution-a hungry mob is dangerous. Rice has been, of course, dearer and dearer on account of the Yang-tsze floods. For the same reason the caters of rice have been more numerous, for the refugees from Hupeh have been numbered by the thousand. The forbidding of export from Changsha had not the desired effect of dropping prices-if that effect was really desired by those who forbade the export. Promises of opening Government granaries were not fulfilled, and as the prices crept up disappointment and anger grew. On Wednesday night a rise from 82 cash a-pint to 84 cash provoked the gathering of an angry mob. Some four or five officials were sent to speak good words. But one of the speakers resorted to that last refuge of a weak man-bluster and bluff: "Rice is not so dear here as at Hankow or Canton, or in foreign countries." A howl of derision greeted the untimely speech. Seize!" shouted the official, and the order was left-handedly obeyed by the scizing of him on the part of the mob, instead of the seizing of the shouters by his runners.
The official, who was of no less rank than a taotai, was dragged by the mob right through the city to the governor's yamên with a crowd that grew rapidly. Soon after 8 P.M. all the immense space in front of the yamên was packed with people, and the first two series of doors and wooden divisions had been burst in. Messages were handied to and fro, until at last the military were called into action. There was certainly some stabbing with bayonets-that deaths resulted is both asserted and denied. At any rate, messengers and fragments of the crowd broke off and scattered in all directions. Then followed beating of gongs and shouting of orders. Every house door was set open and every lamp lighted. The city gates were all shut.
The Work of Destruction,
Tho crowds that went south divided into two main streams. The western one reached the Wesleyan Methodist Mission, perhaps a little earlier than the eastern one would reach the Norwegian. The Methodist Mission door had not been opened at the first gong beating, so it was hammered at by the crowd. As soon as it was opened attention was concentrated on the buildings rented by the Imperial Post Office and the Imperial Bank a little further on in the same street. The post office door was too substantial for such weapons as the crowd possessed. Not so the bank doors and windows. Showers of shattered glass were followed by showers of broken tiles, as the mob leaders got on to the roof. One huge stroke, followed by a loud yell, announced that the doors were burst in. Then there was comparative stillness on the night air. It was only comparative, and it only lasted while the maddened crowd could retrace the 50 or 100 yards back to the mission. The mission windows and lamps followed after the manner of the bank, and the largest chapel in the city within two minutes was a wreck. The missionaries, who had all got dressed, were able to leave quietly by the back door, while the crowd streamed across the lawn and looted, and made a
bonfire of the loot on the lawn. The missionaries-five ladies and four men-walked quite unmolested through the 200 yards of back streets between the compound and the city gate. Then there was a delay of twenty minutes or so while the keys were being fetched. The refugees were taken into the shop that is used by the guard. While they were there a police-box was smashed up; but no attempt was made to molest them. The gates were opened, and the missionaries went at once on to the C. N. steam-ship "Siangtan." News was taken to the British consul (whose temporary consulate has been outside the gates, with telephonic communication to the city).
With the missionary in the house, telling the tale of the looting and burning, the Customs taotai telephoned out that the premises were adequately guarded!
The eastern crowd had first reached the Norwegian Mission. There the same story of looting of houses and escape of missionaries was repeated. The Norwegians were in a much less convenient position for reaching safety. They spent some hours on the city wall, and were well cared for by the official in charge at the North Gate. He himself helped in the cooking of some refreshments.
The nearest foreign neighbours were the doctor of the Yale Mission and his family and one of the professors at the Government College with his family. Their house was rented, and was overlooked by the crowd. The two families were received first into the house of a Chinese gentleman, and after dawn made their way through the Eastern Gate to a camp under the command of a friendly colonel.
Not much farther on was the China Inland Mission compound. There the crowd made rapid destruction, but once more the missionaries escaped.
As the day wore on refugees came from one place and another, until every European and American had left the city.
About 11 A.M. the mob fired the governor's yamên, and for the rest of the day volumes of smoke rose up as building after building caught fire. Rumour was busy; the governor had been murdered, had committed suicide, was in hiding. Assuredly there was but little space for him to hide in his own extensive compound by nightfall. At 2 o'clock a column of smoke rose over the Norwegian Mission, and a little later another marked the sito of the China Inland Mission. There was no mistaking that mob rule was the only rule in Changsha.
That night the river side was attacked; the custom-house not held by the mob
to be Chinese property; the wharves and godowns of Messrs. Butterfield and Swire and Jardine and Matheson were all burned down. So was the Catholic Mission outside the North Gate, the Japanese consulate inside the city, and the Normal College outside the South Gate.
On the Steamers.
During the night the C.N. steam-ships "Kian" and "Siangkiang" arrived, and early on Friday morning a number of the ladies and others left for Hankow by the I.-C. steam-ship "Changwo." The three British steamers had been chartered by the consul on behalf of the Government. Still, that does not alter the indebtedness of all on board to the great courtesy of the captains, officers, and not least the heavily overworked staff of Chinese servants.
The boats were first anchored about a mile or two below the city and were able to see and were seen by the looting crowds. Some of the best of the military officials- men who had some claim to be listened to, if only on account of their great help in guiding parties of refugees to safety-hazarded the opinion that the military would more quickly regain control if the boats would drop 10 miles or so further down out of sight. That there was a turn in the tide was shown by the fact that two looters caught in setting fire to a Chinese-owned hotel (which was patronised by foreigners) had been promptly bayonetted and hanged. So the consul gave orders for our boats to get out of sight.
The Japanese community (with the exception of one or two who could not be reached) had gathered in the compound of the "Nisshin Kisen Kaisha," and with the help of 200 soldiers-who had been drilled by Japanese instructors--held the compound safe and sound. They were now all on board the "Siangkiang."
On Saturday morning, the "Siangtan" and "Siangkiang," both crowded with foreign passengers, left for Hankow, and the "Kian" stayed on alone. During the day reassuring reports came from some of the interior cities connected by telegraphi with Changsha. But at 10 P.M. the whole missionary community at Siangtan, with the exception of two gentlemen, arrived on board the governor's tender which had
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