Canton, July 12.
A tragedy occurred last night at 32 o'clock on the Pearl River off the East Bund when a lunatic: soldier fired a volley of shots point blank at a group of fellow soldiers who were asleep in a river junk, instantly killing three and seriously wounding four.
The rest of the soldiers were panic stricken. They got out of their beds. rubbed their sleepy eyes and sought shelter, thinking they were being surprised by some enemy. Many of them seized the guns and were about to fire back when the lunatic threw away hiv gun, jumped on shore and made a dash for liberty in the midst of utter confusion, screaming and shouting, a Canton correspondent informs' the "Hongkong—Daty Bras."
Troops Turn Out Meanwhile a detachment of the Sth Army stationed in the Pot Chi Guild House woke up and a emtingent was immediately sent out to guard the surrounding streets and maloos. Soldiers from the headquarters of the 15th and sth Armies, which are also close to the scene of tragedy, were likewise ordered by their commanders to mount guard in the principal thoroughfares of the eastern section of Canton. By this time the news had reached the Central Police Station on Wai Sun Rodd, which despatched a number of gendaraics to help the regular soldiers guard the streets.
Several Police armoured cars were ordered to leave the Police Station and patrol the city until further orders.
Within a short time the whole of the east section of Canton, includ: ing the busy Wing Hon Maloo, the East and South Bunds, and all the principal adjacent roads were heavily guarded. Neither pedeste: an nor vehicle was allowed to pass.
"Suspicious characters," which this case meant pretty well ever ne, were stopped, searched, questioned and ordered to go back hon: e. While all this was going on no one really knew what had hapened, neither the commanders themselves, nor the soldiers.
Himself Fired On Meanwhile, the lunatic saltier had been fired-upon by his fellow-soldiers from the junk. But owing to the darkness he was not hit. Iie ran westward along the Bund as [fast as he could. Finally after seeing that all possible avenues of escape were closed, he jumped over an iron bridge into the river and disappeared. ~The soldiers on shore could have caught him, had they: known that he was the man! But fax many people were running in a panic-stricken condition, they could not discriminate between friends and foe, Subsequent investigation revealced that the lunatic was Wong Took: Tso, a soldier of the first battalion of the Tard Regiment of the 25th Shih or Division. These soldiers had just arrived ® Canton from the East River districts. They cam 6 junks which were anchored off the East Bund side by side, Among the three persons shot and killed, one was a boatman. this happened at midnight, most of the people in Canton did not anything about it. The ini were all taken to the hospital,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.