The procession naturally increased in number.as the students marched along Chekiang Road, and by the time Nanking Road was reached, the demonstrators: were some thousands atrong,. the" majority of-them. no doe: of knowing -why. they: were! there or what it was all about. No sooner had the leaders of the pro-they made a rush for the gates, where a small force of Chinese and Sikhs were on guard. The rush ras stopped almost as quickly as it was made, and in the process a number of students were arrestd and taken into the station compound. A second rush was made for the gates, and this also was held, with more arrests following. An urgent! message was despatched to headquarters for assistance, and meanwhile there was intense excitement among the crowd now massed between Chekiang Road and Thibet Road. Joined by a few foreign officers, a force of Sikhs and Chinese succeeded in forcing the crowd back from the station gates and down Nanking Road, clearing the way a tittle beyond the Town Hall. Here. three officers, P.C's, Stevens, White and Cole, were roughly handled by the mob,' now entirely out of hand, and attempts were made to grab the revolvers which the ofoers ]were carrying. These they managed to retain, but only after a revere struggle in which they received a rumper of hard blows.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.