Report on the Chinese Demonstration against Shameen on the 23rd June, 1925.
By the present I have the honour to report on what took place here on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 23rd inst., when the Chinese held a procession demonstrating against the foreigners for the abolition of the existing treaties and extra-territorial rights.
To start with, it is as well to mention the events leading up to the unfortunate affair on Tuesday, the 23rd.
On the 6th June, a battle started between the Canton Government troops and the Yunnanese, who had occupied Canton city in an endeavour to overthrow the existing Red Government headed by Civil Governor Hu Han Min. The Yunnanese were defeated and driven out on the 12th June, and the Canton Government proclaimed that peace and order would now be restored for the benefit of the people. However, towards the end of the following week it was clear that student agitators were busy fomenting a strike against the foreigners under the pretext of sympathizing with those killed in the Shanghai affair of 30th May, and on Saturday, the 20th, the usual British river steamer from Hongkong failed to put in an appearance, the crew having gone out on strike in Hongkong. At the same time rumours got about that all Chinese servants employed by foreigners on Shameen would cease work the following day, and on Sunday morning, the 21st, at 9 a.m., all servants left their employ. On Monday, all crews employed on foreign-owned motor-boats and launches walked out, so that by this time the Island was entirely deserted of Chinese and the foreigners practically cut off from communication with the outside world. On Monday, it was further known that the Chinese students and others intended holding a procession the following day as a demonstration against the foreigners, and it leaked out that at a meeting held at the Kwangtung University the agitators were determined to enter Shameen and/or would create an incident for propaganda purposes. H.B.M. Consul-General, on hearing this, immediately warned the Secretary for Foreign Affairs that any attempt made on Shameen would be met by armed forces.
Preparations to meet any emergency were already made during the previous week's fighting by the Municipal Council of the British Concession of Shameen by calling up Volunteers for special police duty; and the actual defence of the Island was in the hands of British and French naval forces, who had erected sandbagged machine-gun posts at various points along the creek facing the city.
During the morning, Tuesday, the 23rd, it was noticed from Shameen that motor-cars passing along Shakee Street the street on the Canton side of the creek separating the island from the city-were distributing circulars and leaflets, which later on proved to be inflammatory pamphlets calling upon all and sundry to rise against the foreigners and drive them out of Shameen.
The procession commenced shortly after 2 o'clock, and I personally watched the demonstration from the verandah of the "Victoria Hotel," facing Shakee, from the beginning, and was therefore an eye-witness of all that happened. The procession was headed by mounted and dismounted police, and then came on sections consisting of various units comprising students of different schools, labourers, boy scouts, and a sprinkling of girl students, all waving flags and banners and shouting towards Shameen. One of the last units was headed by a brass band of small boys, this being said to be the Canton Christian College students.
Up to this time the procession was perfectly orderly and just resembled any ordinary similar political demonstration in Europe, in fact so much so that I remarked to a bystander on the orderly behaviour of the crowd. But at this point the aspect changed. After the Christian College students had passed there was a gap in the procession of about a hundred yards, and then came a unit flying a huge red flag and a red flag with a yellow star and scythe (said to be the Soviet banner). This unit, consisting apparently of labourers, gesticulated more threateningly towards Shameen and yelled fiercer than their predecessors, and the next I saw was that a fully armed military force with arms at the slope and led by mounted officers followed in their rear. When these had reached up to the corner of the lane leading into the city from Messrs. Li & Fung's, I suddenly saw the Chinese crowd of spectators stampede in panic, as if being warned of danger, and simultaneously the soldiers got their arms from the slope, cocked rifles and the first shots rang out. Bullets were flying all over where I was standing, and I leaped for safety in through the hotel window, where I had to take cover behind pillars against the rain of bullets aimed at the hotel. The fire s immediately returned by the British and French naval machine-gun units posted along Shameen, followed by the Shameen's Police force in the Police Station and hotel, and was aimed entirely at the attacking military forces across the creek, which were said to be the Whampoa cadets under their Russian leaders. The procession proper had, when the firing started, reached the English bridge, and was therefore out of the danger zone. The actual firing took place between the French and the English bridges and was kept up by the Shameen defenders for about 10 minutes, while the troops on Shakee kept up intermittent sniping from the house tops for about an hour and a half after Shameen had ceased firing. The French gunboat stationed off the French Concession participated with about 8 shots from their heavy artillery, but these I was later told were blank rounds. The casualties on the Shameen side numbered one French civilian killed outright and two British civilians wounded. As to the casualties on the other side the figures are very conflicting, but must have been heavy.
Later in the afternoon, when firing had ceased, I observed from the Shameen Police Station how the Chinese collected a large number of dead bodies, stripped off their clothes in a small side street just opposite and brought a photographer along to photograph the scene: It is, of course, superfluous to enlarge on the purpose for this action.
In view of the fact that the Canton Government immediately after the incident saw fit to notify the Consular Body, and in particular the British and French Consular Representatives, that the firing had started from Shameen and that therefore the foreign authorities were responsible for the affair, I have availed myself of this opportunity to bring before His Danish Majesty's Government the actual facts as seen by myself. There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that the affair was prearranged; and the fact that fully armed troops in great numbers took part in an otherwise peaceful demonstration precludes any doubt as to the intentions of the organizers, for which the Chinese Government must be held responsible, the more so as they were previously warned against the consequences of such an action.
(Sd.) WALLACE J. HANSEN,
Consul.
ROYAL DANISH CONSULATE AT CANTON,
25th June, 1925.