Arrest of Three Agitators: Five Wounded A regrettable collision took place en January 18 between the Chapei police and employees of the China General Edison Ca., Robison Road, in which a number of Chinese were injured, one at least seriously, a result of being fired on by the police in question. The dispute out of which the firing arose, does! not appear to have concerned the employers: of the Chinese workpeople concerned, so much as the people themselves and the police, and is stated to have arisen out, of the action of the Chinese authorities in arresting three mon, employed by the company in question, on suspicion of being communist agitators, appears that there had been some amount of agitation going on among the employees of the firm in question, and it was Proposed that they should hold a meeting. The management, it is reported, notified the police! that such a meeting was to be held, and that they did not wish it to take plac? on their premises. Somewhere about 6 pam. the Chapel police arrived and took into custody three men whom they suspect ed of being the prime movers in the.
and of being Bolshevik pro-
Nothing futher appears to have happened until January 13 when the coolies employed in the porcelain and glass departments, pushing young girls ahead of them, went over to the lamp factory and endeavoured with some success to. Persuade the workers there not to continue their Inbours, The whole of the idle people assembled in the yard.of the premises, and though by this time some of the Chapei police were on the spot, the management warned the Settl ment fire brigade in order to have Someone standing by in case there should be anything in the nature of j a fire. The crowd did -a little damage, throwing stones, ete., but. nothing serious.
Somewhere.about noon another Jagitator was making a speech de-mending that the three men, who: had been arrested on Saturday should be Jiberated, and when this hearers endeavoured to pull down a man who was explaining that the three arrests lind had to do with the company, Tt was at this moment that the police commenced to take a hand in the proceedings, and a sergeant ordered his men to disperse the crowd, but not before the speaker had been thrown down and was receiving a severe beating. The sergeant, it is reported, secing that the crowd did not disperse, ordered his men to fire. It is believed that he meant his men to fire into the air, and it is stated by eyewitnesses that the older men did so, It is further reported, however, that Jsome of the younger men, fired practically at point blank into the crowd, with the result that five were wounded, one of them, a gil, seriously. attended, to stand by, but by the time it-arrived the trouble wi practically over.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.