SITUATION IN SOUTH CHINA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 8, 11 January 1927, Page 11

SITUATION IN SOUTH CHINA.

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ANTI-BRITISH BOYCOTT. _ CREATES COMPLETE DEADLOCK. POSSIBLE EXTENSION" TO OTHER NATIONS. (By JAY TEX, Special Correspondent of the i nd -Star," and the North Amen a Newspaper Alliance.) HONGKONG-. November 20. For more than sixteen months, since June, 1925, Hongkong has borne the brunt of the boycott which the South China Government at Canton h;i<s imposed against British trade, but the blight that has been cast upon the colony is not immediately apparent to the casual visitor. In the SO years that they have been here, the British have placed the foundations of their economic structure too deeply to be uprooted in a single year. The judicial records show hundrt Is of bankruptcies of Hongkong businees houses, but ten of these are Chinese to every one that is British. The old lion is emaciated, hw self-con-ceit has been shaken and he is nervous and snappy, but he is holding on grimly in the face of a situation that is,, to say the least of it, discouraging. On June 23, 1925, at Canton, the Chinese had organised a demonstration to protest against the shooting of students by the foreign police of Shanghai on the previous May 30 Tlii«s Sinuiirna incident has been cited as the excuse for the boycott against Hongkong, which had been imposed a few days earlier, but the Chinese people generally had, up to June 23, paid very little attention to the restriction. Trade between Canton and Hongkong had been reduced but had by no means ceased. The Foreign concession at Canton is on the island of Shameen, in the river opposite the city, with which it is connected by a bridge. The Chinese had announced their intention of parading through the concession, and the foreign police. b:i.'ked by a i'.>nsiilerab!e force <ji British bluejackets, had been stationed behind barricades at the Shameen end of the bridge to prevent their doing so. On the appointed day the parade assembled and marched to the Canton end of the bridge, but no serious attempt was made to cross. Eye-witnesses have since declared that the demonstration had died down and seemed to be breaking up when suddenly firing began, with the result that 52 Chinese were killed and 117 wounded. Who Started the Trouble. The question as to who started the trouble is still bitterly disputed. The Chinese allege that the British fired into the mob of unarmed men, women, and children, and that it was only after several had been killed that the fire was returned from the Chinese side. The British, within the past month, have issued a voluminous White Paper incorporating official reports and other documents having to do with their affair, and all tending to establish the claim that the Chinese fired firet. The unanimous testimony to this effect by British observers is supported by a number of Americans, including one naval officer who witnessed the shooting. The Chinese do not deny that some time previous to the affair they had mounted machine guns in buildings opposite the Shameen and that on the day of the clash these were manned by Chinese soldiers. It is also established that Russian agitators in Canton had been long asserting that the only way to end foreign aggressions in China was by force of arms. For three weeks preceding the Shameen affair the street corner orators in Canton had been vying with each other in their search for more lurid phrases in which to describe and denounce the shooting of i Chinese by British police at Shanghai. Effect on the People. The importance of the Shameen incident, as of the Shanghai shooting that preceded it, was in its effect on the mass of Chinese people. For the first time since the revolution began in 1912 it created a public opinion of sufficient force to play a real part in the situation. First of all it made the boycott against Hongkong very close to 100 per cent effective and stirred up trouble for British merchants in all parts of China. Secondly, it strengthened the radical elements of Chinese politicians, led by the Kuomintang and Kuominchun parties who had previously taken a strong attitude against foreigners and weakened the position of the militarists who had generally played for foreign support. Last, but not least, the combination of shootings at Shanghai and Shameen placed Great Britain definitely as the nation that must bear the brunt of the attack against foreign business interests in China. There are many who believe that the anti-foreign movement will ultimately include equally with the British both the Americans and Japanese, but up to date thes last-named nations have actually profited from the British boycott. British authorities in Hongkong are exceedingly reticent as to the effect of the boycott on the business of the colony. All statistics that might have a bearing on the question have been stopped from publication, which is in itself evidence that the returns have not been favourable. It is known that for the last six months of 1925 the export and import trade of the port amounted to almost 50 per cent less than in the corresponding months of 1924. Real estate values in Hongkong have dropped almost one-half and shares of companies whose business centres in the city have suffered in some instances even more. For a time after the boycott began the British merchants at Hongkong urged the use of force against Canton. It is possible that a blockade applied a year ago might have brought an end favourable to the British. Few people in Hongkong are now urging the use of force. The bigger bankers, for a long time past, have been counselling some sort of a peaceable settlement, even if it must be paid for at a high price. The difficulty, as indicated above, has been to obtain any guarantee that even after the British had paid the boycott would end.