430
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[May 28, 1898.
the acquisition of the commodious shore residence so soon to be prey to the flames, which he had so painstakingly erected. As the mob arrived and, having scaled the verandah, commenced to batter in the doors and windows, Mr. Neumann, alone and unarmed, was in a most perilous position. Fortunately, Messrs. Sharples and Jobst came quickly to his rescue, revolvers in band, and the three succeeded in beating a retreat, as above described, before the mob had time to pluck up courage to proceed to further violence than yells aud brickbats. They all describe it as an extremely narrow escape and a terrible experience. They all have nothing but the clothes they stand in, and, as they pur.. pose remaining afloat near the spot, under the protection of the Taotai's gunboats, they were glad to be temporarily fitted out with such articles of clothing, etc., as the Kuling's passen. gers could spare them. The Taotai himself appears to have been seriously alarmed about the fate of the Foreign Customs offi- cials; he set out at 3 a.m. this morning to come down river and find them and has left them his gunboats; his soldiers, as usual, were perfectly useless in checking the rioters; some fifty men put in an appearance when it was too late, but had they been on the spot at the beginning those Hunan “braves would have been equally ineffective; no one seems to possess authority to order them to fire on a mob, even supposing they would obey such an order.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
eign paper money, and bank notes of several got away totally unmolested but when their Eastern banks were obtained by Grosse. At boy returned for a further supply, the mob that time it was decided to go to work ou were already looting the place. Still the mis- notes of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bauksion buildings were not set fire to, indeed, they and a lithographer was employed. A no-
do not appear to have beer touched at all by tice was put into the newspapers, and Schultz the Huuanese, who seem to have marked out answered the advertisement, and he was engaged for vengeance solely the Customs and steamer on an agreement at 50 marks per week. Schultz, | establishments. Wo next picked up a boat however, when he was aware of the rature of erowded with the crow of the China Merchants' the work declined, but his scruples did not last hulk. Ningpo men and Cantonese, who seem to long. You, Schultz, insisted upon being grautel | be particularly obnoxious to the Shasi mob a share of the profits of the undertaking in con- and so had fled in terror of their lives. We sideration of the great risk you ran, and it was
could learn little from them; the affair had agreed that you should receive 40 per cent. of been so sudden that they had barely time the profits, while you Grosse, were to get 60 per to bolt when the rioters rushed on board. cent. Another person who had advanced funds Meanwhile we anxiously enquired: Where for the undertaking received a promise of notes are Mr. Neumann and the Customs staff" for 30,000 marks to be paid ont of the first "Down river" they replied and on we went. profits. And then you two men set to work At length a Chinese gunboat was discerned manufacturing these notes, and finally you putting out into the stream and as we rapidly started in March last for China with the in- stenmed towards it, we descried a white speck tention of changing these notes at the various in the crowd of blue-coated natives in which we ports. But you were arrested at Singapore, soon recognised the familiar white waistcoat where notes to the value of $221,000 were covering the portly form of the jovial com- either found with or traced to you, while missioner. But Mr. Neumann, as he came on money in gold, Bank of England notes, aud board, was in no jovial mood; he had not yet jewels, were also found in your possession, recovered from the narrow escape he had gone These are the facts of your case as admitted by through on the previous evening, and from yourselves. You have therefore carriel on this a night afloat with nothing but the clothes great fraud in a most systematic manuer, as if he stood in. With him were Messrs. Sharples it were an ordinary business transaction. The and Jobst and from them we learnt how sudden only thing that can be said for you is that you and unexpected was the attack made upon them have made an admission of your guilt. I seu- and in how determined a manner the rioters had tence you Heinrich Grosse to penal servitudo carried it out. They rushed the house, axes and for a term of 10 years, and you (eorge Schulze spears in hand, gongs beating and drums rolling, to penal servitude for a terin of 8 years.
and with shouts of Sha yang n" (Slay the foreigners) broke in the doors and windows and proceeded to loot the rooms and fire the building. The three Europeans, armed with two revolvers, literally hacked step by step holding the crowd at bay from the house down the bank to the boat in which they ultimately escaped.
His Lordship's remarks having been inter- preted to the prisoners, they asked whether they could appeal to a higher court.
The Judge-No, the law does not allow any appeal.
The two men, who were without doubt sur- prised at the heaviness of the sentences, were then removed to the cells.--Straits Times.
THE RIOT AT SHAST,
On board the steamer Kuling off Shasi, 10th May, 1898.
We left Ichang last night and at 8 this 'morning steamed past the ancient pagoda which marks the downward approach to the swamp- surrounded city of Shasi. As we rounded the bend preparatory to hauling up to the China Merchants' hulk, moored below the town near the new Customs buildings, no trace of hulk nor of the houseboats in which were domiciled
the British Consul and the Customs outdoor
staff, was visible; nothing but a column of smoke rising above the glassy surface of the river marked the spot where the hulk once lay; and on shore the charred ruins of the newly- erected, imposing Customs buildings and of the Japanese Consulate and the China Mer- chants late offices showed but too truly that another Yangtze riot had taken place. A dense blue-coated mob lined the river banks but the water at this sput usually alive with traffic was a desolate waste. The British Consul we knew to be absent, but where were the Commissiouer Mr. Neumaun and his staff? As soon as Captain Grayson had brought his vessel's head up-stream, a boat put off from the shore, and we learnt that at dusk yesterday a Hunanese mob had sacked the place, the Com. missioner with bis men had fled down river, the Swedish mission and the China Merchants' staff across to the opposite shore, while the Japanese were said to have escaped in Chinese dress and taken refuge in the Tautai's yamen. So much was sure, that no lives had been lost and the apprehension we had suffered from until this news was known was thereby happily
relieved.
W
The Kuling now set out to find the refugees and steamed across to the south shore and thence down river. We soon noticed a sampan from which a white kerchief was being waved, snd from it picked up the Swedish missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Ryden and Mrs. Tgellström with two children, amals, and "boys." They had passed the night in the sampau crowded up with five boatmen. They told us that on seeing the flames of the burning buildings (their mis- sion is on the river bank, half a mile higher up), the neighbours came and urged them to flee and helped them to carry down to their boat a supply of most needed clothing and food. They thus
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The mob at Shasi have always been a terror to Europeans ever since the port of Ichang was opened and the passing steamers called there for passengers. I myself have on more than one occasion been badly hustled there and pelted with brickbats. In January of last year, Mr. Neumann, with two members of the Lyous mission, while walking in the adjoining country were severely pelted; Mr. Neumann was badly cut about and parrowly escaped serious injury. Fortunately the Chinese are not adepts in stone-throwing, otherwise more than one fatal result would have to be deplored. This last outbreak with a gunboat lying in the neighbour. ing port of Ichang, while the frequent complaints made to British Consuls have passed unnoticed and those unprovoked insults have remained avenged, is but the natural outcome of our laisser faire policy in China, of which we are now reaping the inevitable reward.
fire to it.
The ostensible origin of the riot was a quar- rel, on the preceding day, between the witch- man on board the China Merchants' hulk and a Hunun boatman who had misconducted himself on board. This man summoned his comrades to avenge him, and on the following day the agent of the China Merchants' Company endeavoured to compromise the matter, but all offers of money compensation were loudly refused and gong, im- the mob, called together by a mediately set about destroying the hulk by saturating it with kerosene and then setting The bulk, one of the old Foo- chow teak-built gunboats, burnt slowly and thus we
were able to witness its smoulder- ing remains twelve hours after it had been set fire to. Another detachment of the rioters proceeded to the premises on the shore opposite occupied by the Company, thence to the Jap anese Consulate adjoining, and from there to same time the large houseboat in which resided the Customs buildings, also close by. At the
the outdoor staff, was burnt; the houseboat in the occupation of the British Consul, which was moored alongside, escaped by the prompt action of the Consul's boy and crew, who cut the boat adrift and slipped down stream before the rioters had time to board her. Mr. Clennell himself was fortunately away.
The new Custom house was a large band- some building dominating the town by its height and sizeand was just completed. Mr. Neumann had moved in from the junk upon which he had been living since the opening of the port (a year or more ago) only nine days before, barely time to congratulate himself ou
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As to the remoter causes of the riot, these doubtless are to be found in the prospective opening of Yechon and Huono generally to foreign trade, and in the taking over of the likin by the Foreign Customs. The former measure can be successfully brought abont by a proper exhibition of firmness, but the latter. measure is, I fear, likely to prove a source of serious trouble for a long time to come. Thousands of needy and incompetent officials have to be dis- placed and when men, even Chinese, are forced into starvation, they are apt to become rioters. But the root of all trouble in the Yangtze Valley are the Hunanese. These people fondly imagine that they have succeeded "and still succeed in keeping the deteated for- eigner at bay. even if, as it is said, they have ceased to detest his work-and this root should be attacked and overcome once for all if peace is to reign henceforth in this region. Years ago Mr. Consul Gardner begged the British Government to let him proceed from Hankow to the Tungling Lake in a gunboat and there and then throw open a port in Hanan. The British Minister of the day wanted peace, and the successive riots of 1890-91 were the
can
result. Will half measures or no measures again be the order of the day This is the question the residents in the Yangtze valley are now anxiously asking.
A pleasing feature in this riot, and one noticeable in other riots, is the faithful conduct of the Chinese servants towards their employers. Mr. Neumann's clerk, a young Foochow man named Kuo, at the peril of his life rescued $200 and the Customs seal from the safe, while the rioters were breaking into the building and while his own house adjoining was being burnt and his wife and child
The were flying.
servants of the Swedish mission succeeded in carrying off some clothing and tinned milk for the children while the mob were looting the house, and bravely assisted their mistresses to
flee to the boat -N. C. Daily News,
THE SHASI KIOT AND CHAN G CHI-TUNG'S MOVEMENTS.
Shanghai, 18th May. The recent unfortunate riots at Shasi will
interfere with H.E. the Viceroy Chang's pre- sent plans of going up to Peking, as the new port being under H.E.'s jurisdiction it is neces sary that he should be on the spot to settle matters before resuming his journey north- wards. It is therefore very likely that H.E. will return to Wachang in his despatch vessel, the Tautsai, to-morrow, the 19th instant."
20th May.
According to reports circulating amongst the local mandarins the instructions received by H.E. Viceroy Chang from Peking to return to his post at Wuchang were motived by the alarmist news received by the Tsaugli Yamên from the Chinese Minister at Tokio, that Japan
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