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THE
E HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND numbers without the knowledge of the Viceroy's officials at Sham Chuu, where they had to cross the river by a ferry. Nor could the warlike preparations have been made without the knowledge and connivance of the 600 troops which the Viceroy acknowledges that he placed in the leased ares to preserve order. The emplacement for guns and the entrenchments at Taipohu were never made by peasants without some direction from a person having military training of some sort.
wern Chinese troops. He said that the Viceroy had sent him hat: 300 men should he placed in itory to preteat it until I took it him that I had determined to hoist orning and thatall Chinese soldiers:
leave the leased are. On the asioner of Imperial Customs at Deputy Wang wished to after, he waited upon me Hillier, the Chinese Com. Coma Deputy Wang was Two of the letters found in the meeting- the Customs question, about house mention Major Fong, who was one of the evidently been sent down, but IVloeroy's officers in charge of the Forces for upon the subject. I told him the preservation of order. One letter would not permit Chinese troops to appear to show that the Viceroy wished to warn Territory and at Kowloon, and the people, but the other contains the significant derstand why the Viceroy should hint that Major Fong will not in any way use it necessary to send to Kowloon force but will freely allow all the villages to foros of 300 meu two days before carry out their own settled plans.' on which I announced that the New would be taken over. He pressed question for some time, and in the of his remarks said something which Chinese Customs Commissioner did not late, saying it was more folly, but sfield, Her Majesty's Consul at Canton, was present, at once interpreted it is ment that the 300 soldiers had been sent to protect the Customs. I told him that necessary that these men should be with- he promised to telegraph to the Viceroy, no answer was returned, to go to Canton although from the known state of the feelings he had little hope of obtain. ecessary authority to move. I made that it would be necessary for the soldiers ithdraw whatever, the state of the Viceroy's ngs. Deputy Wang stated that there were parties of soldiers stationed all through the Territory which he would order to come to Kowloon. I said that those should he ordered to retire to Sham Chun rather than to Kow. loon, to reach which place they would be ob-ritory, with whom it was my most earnest desire liged to march across the Térritory and over the hills.
*I have stated that my proclamation was ported in different parts of the leased area on and after the 7th instant. In the absence of Mr. Stewart Lockhart, who is in the New Ter- ritory, I cannot say what arrangement was made for posting it, but I presume that some nature of the district was employed to post them in the usual manner. On the 20th instant, I received a petition from a wife of a man named Cheang Tsof who was, it appears, employed to post these notices. He had posted, or distribut ed some, for evidence since forthcoming shows when the leaders were declaring for resis. ice they said that this man must be killed he returned to his village from Hongkong, bethen was, with any more proclamations. ence goes to show that early on the of the 18th he left Hongkong for #Fosk Bay en route for his village of Ha- At the time a large number of the who had been called to arms, were mbled at Castle Peak Bay. It is not if the man carried any of my proclama: with him, but he was seized at Castle Peak and sont as" & prisoner to his village, * be was confined in the meeting-house; the defeat at Kam T'in the leader, whose is known, with others, came to Ha-Te un, man, and then shot him; put the body
basket and flung it into the river was subsequently found with a chain astened round the neck, and several
the
OF
Apart from the attack upon the "Is the on** outrage that has taken the week after the 15th instant,*: g this meeting-house Mr. Stewart it insoortred several letters, which se of events previous to the out- . And he has further obtained two of the leaders in the who have submitted and expressed and the letters ind power of com |
Boottish high- it is evident that
in the clan meet the question o
Bedrecy. In the was naked for and
in the der. Th as they did in goki
[September 2, 1899.
THE MILITARY REPORT ON THE OPERATIONS IN THE NEW TERRITORY,
In the New Territory blue book Colonel The O'Gorman's report to Major-General Gas- coigne on the military operations ocouples six pages. Reporting on the action of Sheung Teun of the 18th April Colonel The O'Gorman says:
"At about 2.30 p.m. a report was made to me that a large force of Chinese was seen approach- ing. On examining the situation I saw a goodly number in the far distance evidently intent on attacking us; I ordered Captain Burger to make preparations to receive these people, dir... ecting that only fresh troops should be sent out, the tired ones being left in reserve in quarters. At 3 p.m. Berger had posted his men in their During the entire proceedings I have been allotted positious and we awaited the enemy's careful to treat the Viceroy and bis anthorities advance. He came on in three lines and in with a scrupulous regard for international fairly regular formation over a prefectly level obligations. The result has shown an utter plain on dry ploughed land, waving banners disregard of the responsibility assumed by the and shouting loudly. It was distinctly a deter Viceroy of Canton, and a serions loss of life; mined advance for Chinamen. They commenced for it is idle to ignore the fact that the assail firing at long ranges, the 34-inch diameter ants have suffered serious losses in their four shot falling close around us: some rifle bul. days' hopeless contest against disciplined Forces. lets were heard but these were few: jingall Nor can I look upon such needless loss of life fire was almost continuous. When within with equanimity. The statements of Ng Ki 500 yards Berger had a couple of rounds fired Chung and Tang Ko Lam and the letters found to make sure of the distance and to see in the meeting-house show that those people what their effect would be; the Chinamen possess some of the qualities that make good evidently did not like them. Berger then ad- subjects, and foolish as their opposition may vanced, "got his men into a water course well have been, with exception of the murder of under cover and went straight for the enemy, Cheung Tsoi after the fight at Kam Tin, their who, on seeing our men, turned and bolted action displayed no moral turpitude. With without firing another shot. We made a gen- Her Majesty's Government rests the decision eral advance, keeping up a heavy fire until the whether any, or what notice, shall be taken of active Chinamen had got away out of range. violated promises involving grave loss of life, The Hongkong Regiment fired individually serious expense, and inevitable feelings of acer- and very deliberately. A few of the enemy fell bity on the part of the people of the New Ter-but were carried away by their friends. In my opinion not many of them were hit. Seren to establish relations of friendship and confid-
men were observed to fall and we saw two ence from the moment of my assumption of the corpses in another part of the field later on. I Government,'
know it is not easy to hit running men at dis tances beyond 600 yards, but considering the number of rounds fired the eneay's casualties! were, I believe, slight. No mau was hit on our side though several had narrow escapes, shot falling within a few feet of them. Simmonds' guns bad not arrived from Fan Ling and there- fore did not take any part in to-day's action
In one of the Colonial Secretary's minutes the following occurs :---
Among the documents found in the Un Loong meeting-house is a letter addressed by one of the underlings of Major Fong to Ng Ki-cheung. I would especially call attention to the following sentence in that letter:- All other particulars you will know fully when you see Major Fong, who will not in any way use force, but will freely allow all the villages to carry out their own settled plans, Ng Ki-cheung informs me that by the sentence in italios he understood that the villages could do what they liked, He says he never saw Major Fong, but that Tang i-shek went to see him at Sham Chan. Tang 1-shek has been one of the ringleaders in the movement and Ng Ki- chenng informs me that Tang I-shek left this territory for Nam Tau on the 14th April and on the same day wont to Sham Chun to see Major Fong. Next day he went to Canton to petition the Viceroy and Governor. If he did present a petition, it would be interesting to obtain a copy of that document,"
On the 19th April (after the opposition had been subdued) the Viceroy issued a pro- clamation stating that the territory had been leased, that the people would not be compelled to remove, that private property would not be expropriated, and that there would be no harsh treatment, and concluding as follows:-
We therefore think it right to circulate this second proclamation to urge you people to reform the error of your ways and to strive to be good and loyal subjects and so avoid involving yourselves in the meshes of the law."
The above includes practically all the des patches having reference to the action by the Chinese authorities in connection with the disturbances. A few pieces of corrobora tive evidence showing the connivance of the Chinese authorities have been omitted.
"We pursued the flying enemy for some distance and then halted and collected the arms they left on the plain. Some seven pieces of small calibre Artillery, a quantity of jingalle, and a few old fashioned rifles were picked up.
"I cannot claim any merit for having in- flicted only, as I believe, small loss upon our enemy in this action, but I am heartily glad that not many of them were killed or even hit; these rebels were mostly misguided creatures. badly armed and untrained to war, a foe utterly unworthy of a soldier's steel.
“I believe the enemy's force was pretty con. siderable on this occasion and that they staked their all on the issue. Their intention was to press home and crush us, believing in the vast superiority of their numbers and in a certain victory. The Chinaman had no idea of the power of the modern rifle and no heart to come to close quarters; they made no attempt at stand.
"This defeat shattered their confidence in their warlike attempts and I then felt sure they would not again assume the offensive or openly resist our arms. Subsequent information re- vealed the fact that 2,600 men took part in this. action, and there is good reason to believe that. at least, one-third were men who came from beyond the British boundary.
The Viceroy of Canton might well be called upon to explain the presence of these
men. If he did not send them he certainly must have connived at their assistance in the revolt.
“It seems unnecessary to chronicle in detail the unimportant events that succeeded my re- turn to Táipó on the 27th ultimo. Pesce had been restored in the Western portion of the dis
Japanese papers state that the Chinese Government, having decided to reform the pos-trict, and with judicions treatment it was fair tal service and adopt the Japanese system, has applied to the Communications Department in Tokyo for the engagement of six experts. The Minister for Communications has agreed to the application. The men are to be shortly to sent China
to assume that a like confidence would soon be felt in British good government in the North- ern portion of the Territory. These anticipa. tions are being re-lised to the full." Petitions have been presented from some 200 villages in the New Territory.
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