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mob of 2,000 members rushed to the offices of the
"reformed" Union, murdered two of the Commissioners and severely injured two more.
2.
For the moment no attempt was made at active interference with the steamers, the crews
returning quietly to duty. But Canton was full of
rumours of reviving bolshevism. Such notoriously
communistic organizations as the Labour Union's
Delegates Congress and the Railwaymen's Union again lifted their heads and there seemed every prospect
of a return to the disorders of H. Borodin's réime.
3. But the triumph of the extremists was
short-lived. Instead of acquiescing in these murders
and assaults as heroic manifestations of the Peoples
sovereign will, the new Commissioner of Police, on
the 19th October, made a raid in force both on the
Seamen's Union and its twin trouble-maker the
Hong Kong-Canton Strikers' Union, arresting over fifty persons. At the same time warrants were
issued for the arrest of five leading communists,
Ho Loi being among them, and orders were promulgated cancelling arrangements for a large-scale Labour Demonstration planned for the 24th October. The warning to so-called strikers that their dole would be brought to an end was also repeated though a little extension of the original time-limit was
conceded.
4. It is difficult to be certain how much of these more recent measures represent the deliberate policy of General Cheung Fat-fui, carried into effect after consolidation of his military position
L
during the