CO129-497 - Public Offices - 1926 — Page 507

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that following demonstrations in Canton, on June 23 the demonstrators and soldiers fired upon the English and French Concessions on the Shameen. A French merchant was killed by a shot from the Chinese bund. From the reports of the Commandant of the French naval forces it is clear that the responsibility falls entirely on the Chinese. The Minister consequently is compelled to protest and reserve the right of the French Government to demand reparation-Reuter.

APPENDIX J.

Evidence of Miss G. L. Bendelack, St. Hilda's School, Canton. (Reprinted from the Hongkong Telegraph of June 26th, 1925.)

In the Shameen outrage, the firing was started by Chinese troops who were taking shelter behind girl students taking part in the procession. This definite statement was made to the Telegraph this morning by Miss Bendelack, of St. Hilda's College, Canton, who was an eye-witness of the affair.

"I was at Shameen staying with Miss Fearon,” said Miss Bendelack, "and as we knew many of the schools taking part in the demonstration, we were out watching the procession to see if we could make out the school flags. So far as we could see, however, most of the students were carrying red flags, and as there was a wind blowing it was difficult to make out the characters on them. We were not looking for any pupils of St. Hilda's in the student procession, for St. Hilda's has never taken any part whatsoever in any of these demonstrations. As the students began to pass the Shameen, I though there was practically nothing going to happen, because the students were so tired-looking, although the Rev. Mr. Blanchett told me that when they started out they were in beautiful order.

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Every now and again the procession would stop for a few minutes and the students would call out their college cries and something else which we could not hear, but people who were nearer said they were shouting:-"We are going to take Shameen! We are going to take it now!”

"Presently we saw some Pooi To School girls or some Kwangtung University girls, we could not quite say which, and we noticed that there were some soldiers behind them. Then a shot was fired by one of the soldiers from behind the girls, and this was followed by the troops facing us and firing at the Shameen from between the girls students."

Our representative asked Miss Bendelack whether there was any doubt as to who fired first, and she emphatically replied: "None whatever; I saw with my own eyes the soldiers fire from between the girl students. At the time, our men on the Shameen were walking about unarmed. They did not even have their belts on, and they had been given instructions to place their rifles, unloaded, behind the sandbags. When the Chinese began shooting our men at once rushed off for their rifles."

Miss Bendelack said she thought the girl students did not know that the soldiers near them intended to fire, because as soon as firing started they "flew for their lives." She added that the procession was so long that only a mere fraction of those taking part could see what really happened, and no doubt they had since been told that the foreigners on Shameen started the firing, and, of course, believed it.

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