HOW ANTI-FOREIGN RIOTS ARE RAISED IN CHINA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 69, 23 March 1893, Page 4

HOW ANTI-FOREIGN RIOTS ARE RAISED IN CHINA.

A Times despatch from Hong Kong, dated J 2nd December, says: — " Fu 1 particulars of the riot which occurred at Ichang on 2nd December, and led to the landing of a party of blue jackets from her Majesty's ship Esk have now come to hand. It is clear from these that tlie riot was directed solely against foreigners, without regard to questions of religion, although it is true that Mr Cockburn, the head of the mission of the Church of Scotland, was made a special object of attack. The whole affair arose in a manner which would be remarkable in any other country than China, home new houses were being built for a foreigner by a Chinese contractor who employed Chinese labourers. It happened that one of the latter, in digging some earth, drove his spade into an old grave. An old woman watching him, instantly denounced the man as a deseerator of the tomb of her ancestors, and forthwith started round the town, beating a gong and railing against the foreigners. Consul Everard complained to the authorities, and the woman was sent homo and warned. Nevertheless, a week or so later she repeated her tactics, and so far excited the people as to induce a mob to collect, who threw stones at the new houses. " The following day, owing to the renewed intervention of the British Consul, a notice was everywhere placarded, warning the people, under penalties, against any attack upon or interference with foreigners.

The notice, however, had no effect. The town was filled at the time with student? — always a class inclined to unruliness, and the next day, when Mr Cockburn came into tiie city, he was mobbed, pelted with stones, and compelled to return, with a party of pursuers at his heels, to his compound. "On 2Dth November the mob again collected, forced the labourers to cease work at the obnoxious building?, and pulled down the palings surrounding them. "After that there was quiet until December 2, when the new Taotai was to arrive to take the place of the deceased Governor. There was great preparation at the landing stage by the Imperial Custom House, where his Excellency was expected to disembark, and there was a considerable assemblage of foreigners there. The Custom House is the property of the Chinese Imperial Governments but many of the principal official, are foreigners. In the afternoon, just as the steamer conveying the Governor arrived off Ichang, a very large crowd gathered and began yelling at the customs officers and shouting ' kill them.' Fearing trouble the foreigners left the quay and went back to their own com pound. This was a signal for the mob to begin operations. They smashed the landing gangways and broke into the customs compound, breaking fences and other property. The officers remained perfectly calm until a blow was struck by the leader of the mob, a student. Then the foreigners made a rush for the gate of the compound and shut it, enclosing a number of the rioters, whom they at once set upon with great vigour, cudgelling them with blackthorns and driving them eventually under a rain of blows out of the enclosure. " Meanwhile Mr Everard, who had previously made arrangements with Captain Ravenhill, of her Majesty's ship Esk, which was lying in the river,had a rocket fired from the consulate, which was a preconcerted signal for aid. A party of blue jackets promptly put off in a cutter, and after wading through a quantity of liquid mud left by the tide along the river bank, landed and marched straight to the consulate, the mob dispersing before them in every direction. The blue jackets after remaining on shore some hours without firing a shot or using their side-arms, returned to the Esk at night, the town being then perfectly quiet. The agitation, however was not entirely extinct. The following day a party of roughs gathered outside the house of Mr Cockburn and raised shouts bf ' Kill kill.' The reverend gentleman, however, presented a revolver at the fellows and threatened to shoot them unless they went away. The threat was effective and they departed. Since then there has been no trouble, but the position is viewed with some apprehension. The students of whom a good number had their heads broken by the foreigners'"in the Customs compound, are vowing vengeance ; and the fact is recalled that the people concerned in the formidable riot of Ichang in •September 1891, have gone wholly unpunished, though an indemnity was paid to the sufferers."