THE CANTON
RIOTS
YOUNG MOB LEADERS
From Our Correspondent
HONGKONG, JAN. 18
From interviews with refugees the following narrative emerges of the attack on the British Consulate at Canton on Friday last.
Only a handful of police were on duty round the consulate on that day when, at about 12.30 p.m., some 200 Chinese forced their way across the west bridge to Shameen Island, carrying banners and shouting anti-British slogans in English and Chinese. An attempt to pull down the British flag was resisted by the police and the agitators succeeded only in bending the mast. Shortly afterwards the procession dispersed and the consulate staff sat down to lunch, assuming the demonstra- tion to be over.
At about 1 p.m., however, a larger mob appeared, headed by uniformed members of the Sanminchui Youth Corps, the Generalis- simo's pet organization, who were
at first mistaken for military come to afford protec- tion. This second mob pulled down the flag pole and then began to wreck and loot the con- sular offices and residence. All the buildings were set on fire.
Several consular officials had narrow escapes. Mr. Hall, the Consul, and Mr. Black- well, the Vice-Consul, who remained until the last, were escorted to Shameen police station. Mr. Murray, the Press Attaché, and his wife, assisted by friendly Chinese, reached the American Consulate. One Chinese Press photo- grapher was beaten up for protesting against the vandalism, and some of his Chinese students sought to protect the Rev. John Williams and his wife. All the evacuees pay tribute to the Americans for their assistance. The consular offices were completely destroyed and the residence was badly damaged.
Troops did not arrive to disperse the mob until 3 p.m., and their arrival probably saved the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, which, though damaged, is now being used as the con- sular office. The Mayor and other Chinese officials later tendered their apologies.
MOBS IN UNIFORM
A local Chinese paper to-day publishes, without condemnation, a large picture of the pulling down of the British flag at Shameen as well as photographs which show many in the mobs to have been in uniform,
The theory is advanced by a correspondent in a local paper that the outrages were directed against Mr. T. V. Soong more than against] Hongkong; there has been considerable southern resentment over his appointment in September last as Governor of Kwangtung Province.
The incidents are being connected with the Chinese claim to jurisdiction over the former walled city of Kowloon, opposite Hongkong. It was the smallest walled city in China-the size, as Mr. Joseph Chamberlain stated, of a London square, with a population in 1899 of 744 persons, of whom 544 were soldiers. All but a few fragments of the old wall were removed during the Japanese occupation, and it would now be difficult to locate the site without care and the aid of a large-scale map. There is to-day no Kowloon City, only a heap of rubble. And there are, one must suppose, matters of greater import to China than a quibble over a rubbish heap.
The agitation over Kowloon City has been | revived in connexion with the decision of the |Hongkong authorities to evict a number of squatters, some of whom are located on the site of the former city..
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Times
19 JAN 1948
Me Wallace. H/535
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