RIOTS IN CHINA

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 25

RIOTS IN CHINA

TILLAGES DESTROYED BY FIRE. LONDON, April 18. Renter reports that all was quiet at Hangku on Monday. . It is the missionaries at Hunam, not, Hupeh, who have been recalled. The outbreak was partly due to rumours that the Powers were about to partition China, and partly to distress. Ap T il 19. The riots at Chang-sha are subsiding. The missionaries drowned in the Thistle collision were Spanish Augustinians, and included! the Bishop of Northern Hunan. April 22. The missionaries who have arrived at Hahkow report that the situation at Hanar, is critical. Mobs burnt a number of villages, and many Chinese were killed during the riots. The Technical School was fired, and thirty students were incinerated. Posters threatening to kill all foreigners have been placarded throughout the province, while junks saturated with kerosene have been fired and sent down the stream to destroy vessels arriving to rescue any foreigners, w.ho, until the ships' arrival, are in danger. The British Consul, who has arrived at Hankow, reports that the Consulate was burnt because the labourers from another province weTe employed in the construction of the new buildings. The British Minister at Peking to-day mentions that reports are to hand of a recrudescence of the riots, and adds that no official particulars have been received. The sequel to the recent Chang-sha riots is that Great Britain and Japan have demanded compensation for the losses sustained by their respective subjects, the punishment of all responsible officials, and the decapitation of the riot leaders. ■.■■;>. ''>■ 'April 249" " The British Consul has returned/' >o Changnsha. He declares that there are organised bands of rioters in the neighfotfarhood. All foreigners have taken refuge on the two British warships. April 25. |Siai\g-sh.a is quiet, but the situation is

precarious, and the vicinity is extremely disaffected. The British Consul circularised the" refugees on the 18th inst. emphasising the. statement by the officials that if one foreign life was lost during the riots the whole province would have risen, and that it only awaited the word from Chamg-.sha. _ * Although the scarcity of rice was the immediate cause of the outbreak, the Hunanese anti-foreign ' feeling, coupled with the evidence of the Chang-sha refugees concerning the growing intolerance of the people in recent years, has been highly significant. The refugees pay a glowing tribute to Mr Hewlett, who from the 13th till the 17th. when the Thistle arrived, went practically sleepless. It was largely due to his efforts that no foreigner was killed. Some of the, native military officials stood firm and nelped the foreigners to escape.