CO129-269 - Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1895 [12] — Page 433

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come to Canton without being told what was required

of them; they were promised a certain sum of money

and were told to await orders. On the steamer's ar-

rival at the wharf there was not a sufficient force

of police to arrest them, and most of them landed and were lost in the crowd some forty only were detaind.

Either from these men, or from spies in

Hong Kong, the police learned that the same steamer had brought five barrels full of arms which had been shipped as barrels of cement. These barrels on being opened by the Customs Officers were found to contain

250 revolvers with ammunition.

The

tobe the

It is difficult to surmise what this band

of men would have done if it could have landed with-

out observation. The opinion of the officials in a position to know is that these men would have re-

ceived instructions from their leaders to attack cer- tain public buildings, and that this would have been the signal for the beginning of the rebellion. Superintendent of Police, who appears to me only man who appreciates the gravity of the situation, and who has shown any energy in quashing the plot, informs me that he has discovered that the first step would have been an attack on the foreign settlement, undertaken as a feint to draw off the attention of the City authorities; that then all the public offices in the, city were to be fired and the officials murder- ed; the Treasury was to be plundered, and the Arsenal where the reserves of arms and ammunition are stored

With Canton in their possession

was

tobe captured.

the