CO129-383 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 624

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revolutionaries kept their secret fairly well, many of the

Chinese seem to have known that there was going to be trouble,

and some of the richer inhabitants in the Western Suburbs

had already fled to Hongkong or Macao before the 27th of the

month. The murder of the Acting Tartar General was a fatal

step from the point of view of the secret society men, since

it put the officials on their guard, and the Admiral espec-

ially seems to have been kept to some extent informed of the

influx of suspicious characters into the City which increased

largely in the week before the outbreak. Many of these appear

to have settled in the Manchu quarter to the South-West of

the Old City, and the uneasiness their presence caused is

shown by the fact that many of the wealthier Chinese living

in the quarter moved into the Western suburbs or the Eastern

The Viceroy was approached on the subject, but appa-

rently declined to act until his plans were matured, though

by moving large forces of troops into the City on the 25th

City.

and 26th he showed he was well aware of what was on foot.

On the 27th he took the step which precipitated events.

About 3 p.m. one of the chief leaders in the conspiracy

with eight others was suddenly arrested, and all the

Yamens were ordered to take the most vigilant precautions.

This arrest apparently disheartened most of the

conspirators already on the spot, and it is most prob-

able that the disturbances were mainly due to another

body of revolutionaries who arrived from Hongkong on

the steamships "Honam" and "Wing On" the same afternoon.

This party, though numbering only some hundred men,

saw their only chance was to strike at once. They

laid their plans with a skill which shows they must

have been highly organised and well provided with arms,

Small parties were

ammunition and dynamite bombs.

detailed to the Kuel Tel (

) and Great South

Gates to hold in check any attempt at rescue from

outside the City, while the main body was divided into

three detachments of about thirty men each, of which

one was to attack the Viceroy's Yamen, the second to

seize the Arsenal at the Little North Gate, and the

third to invade the Manchu quarter where it was supposed

they

with