Farther light on the causes of the Vu Tah Mill fracas is shed by a report of happenings on the first day of the strike, Tuesday. This report alleges that, following the Settlement of the strike at Pao Cheng Mill, which is a few hundred yards to the east of the Vu Tah Mill, the Vu Tah workers, through their leaders, presented ' demands. similar to those accepted by the Pao Cheng Mill, the principal one jing a reduction in the scale of fines: Thi request fs sald™to Have been reasonable and based upon that accepted the day before by the Pao Cheng Mill authorities.
When it was placed before the Japanese manager, he said he would be very glad to consider it, so the report says, and promised to let the men know his decision as soon as possible. It is also claimed that he actually verbally accepted the terms. However, instead of considering the demands, the manager immediately sent in a call for 150 police, who were sent down to the mill" on Tuesday afternoon. Simultaneously, the manager post-a notice refusing all demands.
'This apparent deception roused the ire of the workers and was mainly responsible for the shoot: ing on Tuesday evening, when the strikers attempted to' rush the mill. What followed the next day has already been reported in the press.
To gain some idea of the damage your correspondent yesterday ted the Vu Tah Mill, which is on the left. bank of the Haiho, about a mile below the German Concession bund.
Although police seals had been placed upon the doors of all machine rooms, their interior was plainly visible through the that sands of broken window pan Some of the rooms seemed though a tornado had swept through and left a tangled mass of spind-es, yarn and machine parts. Others seemed to have suffered very little damage. As to this the Chinese office staff who were quietly sit-1g about the offices, said that lore than half of the spindles and machinery had been destroyed. They anid the damage had not yet been computed in money value, but must be more than Tls, 600,000.
The electric power house interior was similar to some of the worst machine rooms. The big switch board appeared to have withstood the attacks on its marble body, but the wiring and meters were sin ed to pieces. Broken bricks lay about everywhere, and marks on the large armatures show where strikers in their fury fruitlessly bombarded them with bricks.
More than 75 per cent. of the tire ests reinforced el which lay about the interiors adi: ing to the mes:
The office furniture was a masa of splintered desks, drawers, filing feabinets and chairs. What wan fence a typewriter was a partly flattened and crushed steel heyn and types, evidently the result of a fairly effective crow-bar, A bicycle showed the marks of wild fury, for it was twisted and battered into a shapeless tangle of iron and rubber tubes. two or three blows must it into the scrap heap class it had been apparently dealt blown by all the rioters in the neighbourhood.
'The brick walls surrounding the mill compound were breached in Jabout half" dozen places, the bricks wrenched away to be' used missiles.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.