12th April.
Every well-ordered town looks to the peace of its streets. Rowdiness is frowned upon, and if frowns are not enough, force takes their place. So far as residents are concerned Shanghai might go from year's end to year's end without a public brawl amongst its foreign population. Natives at times take to lall-pulling, and other playful forms of celestial antagonism, but such disturbances are more noisy than destructive. The respectable amongst both natives and foreigners have outlived the primeval instinct which prompts man to follow Rhoderick Dhu's example and "avenge an insult wherever fiven, even in the very Court of coven." But when we are favoured with "general leave" on the part of two or three men-of-war, or when as now, we have amongst us troops subjected to stern dis-siping six days out of seven, then when relaxation takes place, and boisterous youth resumes its sway, when the wine's in and the wit's out, then in the nature of things we have to look out for squalls. No amount of precaution that is practicable will prevent occasional rows, and, as those who have lived in garrison towns know, that place is best managed which provides the greatest number of harmless outlets for natural exuberance, not that with the sternest repressive measures. The first are preventive, the latter curative, and prevention has ever been better than cure, We as a community have done very little in the way of prevention. A few public-spirited people years ago started the Coffee House in Hongkew which has done end is doing an immense amount of good. The German community established another, and private enterprise, amongst the missionaries as a rule, has supplemented these to some extent. But much remains to be done, and must be done if we are to have a garrison here permanently. One particular cause of trouble which need not be specified will have to be taken in hand and dealt with once for all. The Japanese system is not perfect, but it confines troubles arising from this special cause toa special area, and in this way allows of precautions which in Shanghai are at present impossible. Having said so much on general grounds, it may not be amiss to turn for a moment to a particular instance in order to correct, at least in this one case, a wrong impression that has arisen We refer to the disturbance in Hongkew last Sunday. From some reports that have been published it would have seemed that if the French soldiers concerned were not fiends incarnate, they were at least qualifying for that character. But the facts as given us by an eyewitness who saw the fighting near the corner of the Hongkew Park, put another face on the matter. It appears that the trouble began in the most innocent way. There was a little skylarking by the Frenchmen, who might have been drinking somewhat but were certainly not drunk. This was resented by some of the Chinese, probably youths, who commenced to pelt the soldiers. Thus the trouble began. Native policemen came up, there was a great deal of whistle blowing, and some attempt seems to have been made to dispose of the soldiers. Our informant saw one of them struggling with a native constable while other policemen were standing round and the remaining French soldiers, three or four, were making things lively generally. Then a single foreign policeman arrived, and went to the aid of the native constable, whereupon two or three of the Frenchmen set upon the foreigner and he was badly knocked about. It was all a matter of seconds. There was, however, no brutality whatever on the part of the Frenchmen. They hit with their fists, having no other weapons, and in no case did they use their feet, which to a French boxer is permissible. So far as fairness was concerned the only thing which might be considered unfair was the sudden and simultaneous attack on the foreign policeman, who did his duty in a most plucky way. At this juncture the man who had been collared got free, made a dart up the Chapoo Koad, but ran full tilt upon the shafts of a ricksha coming the other way. He was very severely struck by this blow and unfortunately it proved fatal. Then the others might have escaped over and over again, but three stood by their comrade. Two of these had been seen to take a} share in the fighting; the third was quite cool and did his best to smooth matters over. In the end all of them were taken to the Hongkew Station.
This being the plain and unvarnished truth, it is evident that there is no need to stir up bad blood by exaggeration. Probably the soldiers thought that they were the Jaggrieved parties. Their conduct \French uniform that some people was in no way the disgrace to the have tried to make out. The origin of the trouble we have told; its course was of the simplest kind, and the {conduct of the men who would not eave a comrade in difficulties Was ust the conduct that we expect} rom Mr. Thomas Atkins or his nond the bluejacket. At the same time we think the regulation which makes a soldier believe that the Municipal police have no right to arrest him is utterly wrong. Soldiers should have it impressed upon them that in case of trouble with residents, native or foreign, they are at once to submit to the police, who in this case were only doing an obvious duty.
One thing in connection with the Sunday uproar was sufficiently humorous to be worth mentioning. If the Frenchmen knew any English, it had all vanished in their excitement. The Chinese policemen of course knew no French, neither did the Sikh who came up, and, acting probably under instructions, looked on; neither did the English constable when he came. There were words enough flying about, but it was only blows that took effect. Then came a Dane and a Swede, civilians, but their efforts to smooth out matters were not very successful. A Pom-pom man took quite a friendly interest in the most excited of the. combatants and actually quieted him to some extent. Two or three German soldiers approaching completed as pretty a polyglot squabble as has ever been seen. There is humour sometimes on the verge of tragedy.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.