Peking, April 6.
Our correspondent continues to quote a large number of cases of abuse by Chinese police in the OE.R. Zone. We select a few of the worst though there ig little to Tu all cases omitted, names and dates are given in full.
In the month of September, in Harbin, opposite the Russo-Asiatic Bank, there was a quarrel between a Russian named Zapaloff and a Chinese coachman which started with a dispute over the fare and which developed into a real affair when the Chinese struck the Russian repeatedly in the face with his whip. A man named Kravitch, who was passing, interfered just as the Chinese police came up. The two Russians were bound and led away. Then some Russian militiamen interfered and arrested the Chinese police for exceeding their rights, whereupon the Shinese officer ordered his men to fire their guns in the air as a signal. Another body of Chinese police came! up and believing that the Russians had fired started wild firing into the crowd, which resulted in the. killing of the Russian police commissioner Stepanoff and the wounding of two Chinese policemen.
It must be remarked at this juncture that all of the cases cited so! far of malpractice on the part of the Chinese police in Russian communities took place prior to the withdrawal of Chinese recognition from the Russian consular officers, The various abuses perpetrated, the' beatings and imprisonment of Russians therefore took place while the Russians were still supposed to be enjoying extraterritorial immune ity from such abuses and while the Chinese still pretended to recognize} the treaty rights of Russian subjects in China.
The following incidents are all subsequent to the assumption of Chinese authority of Russians in China in lieu of Russian consular jurisdiction—that is, after China had assumed the responsibility of safeguarding Russian treaty rights.
On October 14, near the Viaduct west of Harbin station, the Chinese police beat a British subject named Foo because he started to go under the arch as others were doing. Foo was then arrested but was later liberated by the British Consul.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.