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was wounded and became unconscious.
The wound proved
serious and he was removed to a hospital for medical traat-
ment. Mr. T. V. Soong the Minister of Finance, was an sye
witness of the incident. I then went to the British Consu-
late and asked them why the gunboats had opened fire for
a trifling conflict among private individuals, thus
raising the indignation of the masses. In reply the
British Consul stated that the guns fired by the British gunboat were to give the alarm on seeing that big masses were assembling together to attack the British Concession.
I asked if the BritishConsul could manage to maintain
order in the Concession and if not, all British marines
should be withdrawn and our troops should be allowed to
enter the Concession to maintain order so as to aroid
any trouble. The British Consul replied that he would
discuss the matter when necessary. Finding that the
relations between China and Great Britain had not broken
off, I did not press the British Consul to accede to our request. Therefore I left without much result. On the following day at 11 a.m. the British Consul suddenly sent a man to see me requesting me to send some troops
to the Concession to maintain order. I acceded to his
request and sent a detachment. I also sent Mr. Fan Yung, the Secretary, to see the British Consul and had a grave
discussion with him. We demanded that all British marines
should be withdrawn and that the British Consul should
send an official application to us for troops otherwise
our troops would not take over such a great responsibility. At first the British Consul only agreed to make the appli-
cation verbally, but after repeated negotiations, an official application was given by him which was brought back by my secretary. The application reads as follows:-
"In
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