CO129-497 - Public Offices - 1926 — Page 495

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It must, therefore, have been fired from one of the buildings on Shakee Street, which were slightly above his level. As he fell eight other bullets struck him in the side. Mons. Pasquier was killed, and a Japanese in Victoria Hotel was wounded, before Shameen opened fire. Subsequently, Mr. Edwards, the Commissioner of Customs, Mr. Murell, belong- ing to one of the foreign firms, and Petty Officer Chalmers of the Royal Navy were wounded, and also two Frenchmen and two Japanese.

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It is necessary to examine briefly the evidence put forward by the Commissioners for their statement that Shameen fired first. Most of the testimony comes from students who, according to their own showing, had already passed the West (British) bridge and were therefore well ahead of the soldiers. The soldiers halted opposite Victoria Hotel, 50 yards or more from the British bridge, when they began the attack, and extended eastwards towards the French bridge. Hence it was only the tail end of the student section that might have seen, and then imperfectly, something of what happened. Most of the testimony is to the effect that after the testifier had passed the West bridge "shooting suddenly began" or was heard." Without any valid reason at least none has been recorded in the proceedings of the Commission-the Shameen defenders were accused of being the offenders. One man, Li Shiet Hwa, heard a shot after he had passed the West bridge, and was sure it came from Shameen-sure, because at that time I was not much frightened." The impressions of these witnesses were formed during a period of tense excitement and not unnaturally took on some of the colouring of the day. And there were those who made it their business to see that the passing of time did not soften the tones. Li Shiet Hwa's statement is a fair sample of the indefinite declarations generally made before the Commission. Yet all this evidence, founded on lies and

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built up on rumour, is taken as fact; and the China Christian Union for National Salvation, who acknowledge the existence of “conflicting reports," base their indictment of the British in Shameen on this presumptive evidence and feel that it is their "

duty to make known these facts to our missionary friends in China and through them to the Christian people all over the world."

There is one point on which agreement is reached between both sides. One shot followed quickly by two others was the signal for the firing to commence. The Chinese attribute the first shot to a foreigner in Victoria Hotel. Sham Sung, Chief Inspector of the 9th Police Station, describes the culprit as a long-headed and short-haired foreigner in civilian dress." Chau Check Chi, a student, observed that this foreigner was dressed in a white coat and yellow trousers and had a fierce look." He fired one shot at the procession and then Chau heard "two more shots from the east side of Shameen." That was where the Chinese troops were. This tallies with the British version. It is an interesting fact that a few months ago a Lettish soldier bearing the Russian name of Ivanhoff, acknowledged to another Lett, a civilian, in Sincere's Restaurant at Canton, that he and a comrade had been bribed by Borodin to fire the preliminary shots, and that he had acutally fired the first of the three. He was piqued because he had to wait some time for his money. Now, Ivanhoff certainly was not in the Victoria Hotel or any other part of Shameen.

The Commissioners' official report gives full particulars of 52 persons killed and 117 wounded. Of the 52 killed, one (a boy scout) was trampled to death and the cause of death in 7 cases is not known. The balance of 44 is made up by 22 soldiers, 4 students, 8 merchants, 3 labourers, I apprentice, 7 pedlars and 5 unidentified bodies. In the list of 117

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