Alter three attempts to hold a meeting to celebrate Labour Day on Saturday, the labourers decided not to meet at all. The police or authorities interfered in every instance.
The first_meeting was to have been held in the Public Recreation Grounds at West Gate but on account of the soldiers who looked rather threatening in.their battle array (they were fully armed. dressed in full field uniform and sat behind machine-guns which were posted at various sections of the road) the meeting did not take place.
It was decided then to meet at the Chin Woo Athletic Associations' Park, Baikal Road, in spite of a notice which read "This park is for Chinese. Foreigners may be admitted. No meetings of a political nature are allowed." The police heard of it and immediately guards were sent down there to interfere.
'The crowd went down to the A. Field on N. Szechuen Road Extension, but soldiers who were posted there prohibited it. After one of the labourers had ex: plained the nature of the meeting, the' officer in charge allowed—the meeting to be held for a period of five minutes! The labourers then got together and gave three cheers for the Republic and another three for the Labour Union. As one of the men was about to make a speech, the officer told them that the five minutes were up.
After a while they are said to have secured a secret meeting place. Congratulatory speeches were read and banners and scrolls were presented. They are said to have made two demands:—
(1) That all labourers shall work for 8 hours a day or 48 hours a week; (2) All. different trades should unite and ce-operate.
After this they dispersed. Extra troops and police were to be seen in the Chinese City, Chapei, French Concession, and the Inter-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.