Directory_and_Chronicle_1929 — Page 976

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CANTON

In accordance with stipulations in the Supplementary Commercial Treaty between Great Britain and China, concluded in 1902, the various barriers or artificial obstructions to navigation in the Canton River were in 1905 partially removed, thus rendering the approaches to Canton safer and easier for shipping, and simplifying work in connection with the proposal to improve the accommodation for shipping in the harbour. Extensive wharves and godowns have been erected at Pak Hin Hok on Honam Island, about two miles below Shameen, which enable ocean-going vessels of considerable draught to proceed up to Canton. During recent years large bunding operations have been carried out along the Front and Back Reaches, and a considerable amount of building has been done on the Shameen, where there are now very few vacant lots.

Owing to the disturbed state of China, a British force of about 300 troops from Hong- kong was quartered on the Shameen at the end of 1911, and, with big guns, maxims, barbed-wire entanglements, sand-bag fortifications, etc., the Shameen had the appearance of an island under siege. Canton remained remarkably quiet when the general rising occurred. In April the Tartar-General had been shot; in May a revolutionary crowd made an assault on the Viceroy's yamen, but stern military measures prevented a general rising. Later in the year the new Tartar-General was assassinated by a bomb as he landed in Canton, and on another occasion an attempt, which proved nearly successful, was made to assassinate Admiral Li, who so effectually checked the rising in May. When the revolution broke out on a grand scale in October, the Viceroy, recognising the hopelessness of resistance with troops honeycombed with sedition and with a popula- tion unanimously in sympathy with revolution, readily agreed to the transfer of the Government to the revolutionary leaders, and the independence of the province was thus attained without bloodshed. In July, 1913, when a rebellion broke out in several provinces against what was described as the dictatorship of Yuan Shih-kai, the Tutuh, Chen Chiung-ming, proclaimed the independence of the province. The ex-viceroy Ichen came down to Canton as the generalissimo of the rebel forces to organise an expedition to proceed north to punish Yuan Shih-kai, but he failed to win over General Lung Chi- kwang, of Kwangsi, who remained loyal to the Central Government, and marched with a large force upon Canton. As this force approached the city the Tutuh and the Generalissimo fled, and on reaching Canton General Lung cancelled the declara- tion of independence, and gradually restored peace and order in the city, where much looting and some fighting took place prior to and for some time after his arrival. In 1916 when the troubles arose over Yuan Shih-kai's attempt to ascend the Dragon throne, Kwangtung again declared its independence, but this did not prevent bloodshed. General Lung was denounced as a traitor to the Republic by General Tchen, who attacked Canton at the head of a large army. There was serious fighting and for a number of weeks all business was suspended. There was considerable destruction of property and much loss of life before matters were settled by General Lung's transference to another post. The political situation since 1917 has been very confused. A Military Government was formed in the interests of Constitutionalism, and a com- plete severance of relations followed between the North and the South. Spasmodic fighting, the constant movement of troops and rivalries amongst the various leaders in the South have seriously interfered with trade. In 1921 Dr. Sun Yat Sen, whose party had driven out the Kwangsi leaders in the previous year, was proclaimed by his followers "President of China." In 1922 Sun went to Kweilin, in Kwangsi, to make preparations for his projected punitive expedition to Peking, but his forces never got within a thousand miles of the city, and the hopes which he had based on his alliance with Chang Tso-lin were destroyed by the defeat of this Tuchun's forces by Wu Pei-fu. In the meantime, Sun had alienated his chief lieutenant, Chen Chiung-ming, by this impossible enterprise, and in the middle of the year Chen's supporters put Sun and his followers in Canton to flight. Sun took refuge on the warship Wing Fung, but now known as the Chung Shan, which was attached to his cause, and he went so far as to bombard Canton on one occasion, but without achieving any military result. After remaining on a Chinese warship for some time under the shelter afforded by the Shameen, he left hurriedly on board H.M.S. Moorhen on August 9th to catch an Empress" liner to Shanghai. Chen remained in Kwang- tung, as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, and his nominee, Chan Chik-yue, a merchant of Hongkong, was appointed Civil Governor in September. Early in January, 1923, Dr. Sun's sympathisers sent a force composed of Kwangsi and Yunnanese soldiers to invade Kwangtung, and, owing to the supineness of naval units and the poor resistance offered by the disaffected Cantonese troops, Canton quickly