i
"The Bolsheviks had arranged the pro- ession with both civilians and troops
+
fre.
THE BOYCOTT.
in order to create the incident.' The “At the same time a boycott was de-i, troops had to create the 'incident and clared against the Europaus and the civilians were used in order to present population has been definitely threatened? photographs of a peaceful procession and with death if they work for, or supply to give the Bolshevisks occasion to pointed to, Europeans. In order to make ou that there was no reason whatsoever this clear to the population, dead bodies for Shameen to fire on an unarmed pro-have been carried through the City with cession when the Shamiren back creek lay labels attached stating that these have between the procession and Shameen. 'been killed because they helped foreign.
As another proof of previous prepara- tions by the Canton Government for the old institutions in Canton and are re Bolshevika are gradually sizing the attack on Shamcen I may add that the machine guns used by the Chinese were
placing them with Bolshevik institutions. in position on the tops of the house deal with all so-called strike questions »
The Strikers Union' are empowered to
opposite Shameen. The day before the "incident" took place and I have myself they have their own Court and can and ween the warks of their machine gun fire tinion has also the power to give orders do pass death watences. The Strikers
in the French Concession. As a matter of fact the body of Mons. Pasquier con- tained no less than eight bullets obviously from machine gun fire.
PROPAGANDA PHOTOGRAPHS.
After the shooting in Canton, the general belief by the people was that the Chinese had not fired a single shot on Shameen, but afterwards when more news came out, the Chinese knew that the troops had fired, but thought they had only done so to defend themselves, and it is still believed in the City that Sha- meen started the ring.
Immediately after the firing the Chinese collected the dead bodies and took photographs of them, which clearly shows the incident' was pre-arranged for political purposes. The dead bodies were taken in large numbers to back streets and photograph- ed all together in order to create a botter #fret for propaganda purposes. The Shameen 'incident ereated the neces sary tunesphere in Canton for forming the new National Government to be run ou absolutely strict Bolshevik lines.
The Government in Canton is now en- tirely modelled on Bolshevik lines and consista at present of commisison of 18
to all Government offices as regards strongest power in Canton. In order to strike questions and they are to-day, the
be able to execute their orders they have armed some 4,000 workmen. 'the worsh | of the worst' as the Chinese say them-
rives.
The Labour Unions also collect taxes and the fast tax which has been imposed is a capital levy of 1 per cent. on all fortunes above $300. That tax we officially collected, for the strikers and has to be
paid before the end of this month, but the money is not paid to the strikers funds; it is used, principally, for Gov- ernment purposes. Other illegal taxes such as the kerosene tax and the protee- tion fee on the waterways are still in force. All the Labour Unions which did not belong to the Third International *· have been forced to join in Canton and in those Unions have been formed small parties of Bolshevik members who are absolutely loyal to the party. They watch the others and give reports direct to the Central Union about their fellow com- rades' behaviour.
THE BOLSHEVIK FORCES. The Bolshevik Army in Canton is com-
and that commission elects aomng them.posed of their crack troops, the so-called selves an executive commission of three, † 'Whampoa cadets' which consist of who, at present, are:-Wu Man Min, about 6,000 Chekiang men, trained by Formerly Civil Governor in Canton; Liu | Russian instructors and equipped with Chung Kai, who was formerly head of Russian rifles, chine guns and some The Labour Unon and at present is the field batteries, wh..h the Bolsheviks have Commissioner of Finance, and Wong sent down from Vladivostock to Canton. Ching Wei, who is in charge of the Besides these, there is the Cantonese Student movements in China.
army, which also consists of about 5,000 men. The Cantonese army was under the command of General Su Seng Chi, but he has been removed from his position as General in charge since the 1st August this year and in his place a commission of three workmen and four soldiers hae! been substituted, after the usual Bolshe- ! vik system.
The Bolsheviks are the
These three have absolute power in Canton, together with their official ad- NISCHE, the Soviet special envoy, the fumian, Mr. Borodin. Assisted by the Soviet Migion and the Consulate con- xisting of between 40 to 50 members, there are also about 120 military and naval instructors and some Russians of the talouring class who look after and pre- vate Brins.
J
RAISING FUNDS.
Immediately after the new Government was established they put forward the necessity of maintaining the Hongkong strikers in Canton as a pretext for in- licting new taxes. The first taxes which had to be paid by the general public were:--Half a month's rent; one day's wages by coolies: $5 per person in the student class, or clerka; People with $200 salary, a mouth, half a month's salary; Persona drawing more than $400 a month, que month's salary: First class business Drums, $10; Second class business houses, | *. Third class business houses, $3.
It is said that these taxes brought in a sum of about $3,000,000, of which the strikera hava only received about $50,000,
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strongest military party in Canton. They have the best equipment and the best troops although they have not the biggest number.
"The whole Beet, consisting of one large gunboat, some ten smaller gunboats and about sixty armed launches, is also in the hands of the Red' party and at the end of July a Russian named Smir- noff was put in charge as Admiral of the whole Canton feet. On all the bigger gunboats there are Russian Commanders. The Chinese Naval Officers and soldiers frat protested and wanted to go on strike, but the fleet was taken down to Whampoa and discipline was beaten into the mutinous sailors and after three days, the fleet was back in Canton again and is still under Russian command ex. cept a few launches which escaped to Kongmoon.
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