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"Unanimously adopted by the Seventeen American Staff Members at Canton Christian College."
June 24th, 1925.
APPENDIX 0.
Public statement made by the Rev. A. Baxter, Vice-President of Canton Christian College, published in the Hongkong Daily Press and other Hongkong papers of the 27th June, 1925.
I am the Vice-President of the Canton Christian College. On Tuesday evening, the 23rd June, students and members of the staff returned from the neighbourhood of Shameen, carrying with them bloodstained clothes. They represented to me that a procession in which they were taking part, whilst stationary near Shameen, was fired upon from Shameen without any firing from the Chinese side. This was corrobora- ted by some twelve of our most responsible Chinese teachers who had been present. In view of these statements, Dr. J. M. Henry, who is President of the College, and I attempted to reach Shameen to find out for ourselves how matters stood, but we were unable to get any launch or boat. The Council sent some five senior teachers, who had not been present in the procession, to make further investigation and to report as to the killed and wounded.
When these returned, the President and I called a meeting of the Council, consisting of some five Chinese, four Americans and myself, and the messengers who had returned corroborated in every detail the reports previously received. As a result of further discussion in the Council, a Committee of Chinese, with the President and myself, were requested to issue a statement. This statement was drafted in Chinese,
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the gist of it reported to Dr. Henry and myself, and signed by us and by the Chinese, as representing the College. The matter was arranged at midnight on the 23rd June and I have not seen the document since. I am not able to say whether the translation appearing in the Hongkong Telegraph of the 26th June is correct. The drafting in Chinese was done by the Chinese, who informed Dr. Henry and myself of the gist of it, other Americans having in the meantime left, and no members of the foreign staff, other than Dr. Henry and myself, knew what was in the document. I left the College at 9 a.m. on the 24th June, and I am not aware whether the document was signed by others later. I was not aware that the document was addressed to the American Government or the American people, nor that it purported to have been adopted by seventeen American staff members of the Canton Christian College. When I signed the document I had no information whatever as to its
correctness other than the statements of Chinese members of the College who had been in the procession and the reports of the messengers sent out.
Since the time when I signed the document I have personally gathered information from eye-witnesses which entirely satisfies me that the firing started from the Chinese side.
At the same time, I am of the opinion that the position which the Chinese teachers and students occupied in the procession did not enable them to note where the firing originally came from, and that so far as they were concerned their statement represented their honest conviction.
I should like to state frankly that an error of judgment was made on my part in signing the document without investigating more fully the statements in it, and without waiting for information from Shameen.
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