[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
J
CONFIDENTIAL.
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(No. 166.) Sir,
No. 1.
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[June
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Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received June 16.)
Peking, May 21, 1910. MY despatches Nos. 119, 142, 143, and 144 of the 21st April and the 5th and 6th May respectively, as well as the frequent telegrams sent at the time, will have kept you fully informed as to the course of the recent riots at Changsha and the approximate causes of these disturbances. The subsequent despatches which I have received from His Majesty's consular representatives at Hankow and Changsha, copies of which are enclosed herewith,* and the articles which have freely appeared in the press of Shanghai enable me now to form an opinion on the subject, uninfluenced by the changing course of events, and I therefore deem it advisable to state, for your information, as briefly as possible, what appear to me to be the main factors which contributed to the riots, and what should be done in order to show that persons responsible for such occurrences will not be allowed to escape unpunished whatever their rank or position.
The riots themselves are described in such detail in the despatches received from Changsha and Hankow that I do not think that it is necessary for me to do more than summarise shortly the manner in which they occurred before I turn to an estimate of the situation, of which they are but an outward expression.
On the night of the 13th April a mob of refugees from the famine-stricken districts of Hunan, moved to rebellion by hunger and the reports which were freely disseminated among them that the high price of rice was due to the action of the governor in allowing its export, proceeded to loot the rice shops in the vicinity of the south gate of the city, where they were encamped. The police appear to have offered but a feeble resistance, and, emboldened by the absence of opposition, the mob marched to the governor's yamen and demanded that the price of rice should be lowered. From this moment the riot assumed a different complexion. Members of the guilds of masons and carpenters, who bore a grudge against the governor on account of his refusal to prohibit the employment of masons from Hupei to build the British consulate, joined the rioters, while there also appeared upon the scenes an organised band of some twenty to thirty men, dressed in a distinctive uniform and obviously acting under the orders of recognised leaders. A force of soldiers amply sufficient to quell the disturbance were condemned to remain passive spectators, and the strict orders given to them to refrain from firing on the mob were efficaciously enforced by the summary execution of two of their number who disobeyed. It is not easy to disentangle the exact order in which events subsequently occurred, but it is sufficient to say that during the next forty-eight hours the governor's yamen was burned, the governor himself obliged to go into hiding, and the city was abandoned to the rioters. But from a "rice riot" the disturbance had become a movement directed against the foreigner, or rather against foreign property. From the moment when it was known that the governor was no longer in power, and that the treasurer had stepped into his place, the original rioters appear to have been satisfied and to have dispersed, while the masons assisted at the burning and looting of foreign property only as passive, if sympathetic, spectators. The work of destruction was carried out methodically, systematically, and with a total absence of popular fury by the above-mentioned band of men, and, as soon as their work was completed, the riots ended as abruptly as they had commenced. His Majesty's consul returned to Changsha on the 17th April, and, although there was some danger of a recrudescence of trouble on the 22nd April, all was again quiet when the new acting governor, formerly treasurer of Hupei, arrived with three gun-boats on the 24th April, and Mr. Giles was able to report that there was no evidence of anti-foreign feeling amongst the people.
Such, in brief, was the course of disturbances which have involved, with one or two exceptions, the destruction of all foreign property in Changsha. That they did
*
Changsha, May 4, 1910; Hankow, No. 54, May 6, 1910; Changsha (Mr. Giles), May 11, 1910; Changsha, No. 21, May 9, 1910; Changsha, No. 22, May 10, 1910; Memorandum; Extract from "North China Daily News," May 13, 1910 (uot printed).
[2788 q-1]