MERRY MONTH OF MAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19389, 26 July 1926, Page 9

MERRY MONTH OF MAY.

DATES OBSERVED IN CHINA.

SPEECHES AND PROCESSIONS. [from our own correspondent. ] SHANGHAI. May 15. May is a month deaSr to Socialists, students and Communists. A month o! speeches, demonstrations and processions. There are five dates to be observed; so far, thanks to the stern measures taken by the foreign and- Chinese authorities, four of these dates have been successfully passed. May 1 is Labour Day, which is celebrated by Socialists throughout the world. In the native city a few small demonstrations were held and speeches made on the Overthrow of Imperialism and Capitalism." All was quiet in the foreign settlement of Shanghai. May 4is in commemoration of the Shanghai students' revolt in 1919 against the Japaneso. A meeting was held at one of tho socialists' colleges, where speeches wero delivered against the " Imperialistic Foreigner," but nothing untoward happened. May 1 is the anniversary of the assumption by the late Dr. Sun Yat-sen of the Presidency of China. May 9 is "National Humiliation Day," to. commemorate tho famous "21' demands" made by Japan, following her capture, on November 7, 1914, of Kiaochau or Tsingtao, the former German stronghold in the East. Again, more processions were held, but nothing of note happened. Last, but not least, there is May 30, the first anniversary of the shooting by tho municipal police of Shanghai of certain rioters and students who attacked tho Louza police station. A largo piece of ground outside the foreign settlement of Shanghai, and costing several thousand pounds, has been purchased as a " Memorial Cemetery," and it is proposed to remove the bodies of the victims of that shooting tragedy to their new burial place on May 30. No one can foretol! what will happen on that date, but the authorities have the situation well in hand.

Cablegrams published on June 1 and 2 stated that the celebration of the anniversary on May 30 took the form of riots, which the police suppressed without resorting to firearms.