Commission of Judges The Origin and Character of the Disturbances:—
I amoy opinion that it is essential to look beyond the occurrence on that day, and to differentiate _between the exciting cause which produced the explosion, and. the! causes which created the state of! mind amongst the Chinese which] made the explosion possible, Mr. Fessenden, the Chairman of the Municipal' Council, (and others?) were astonished' at the intensity of the feeling aroused the Chinsee mind;—though they said they were previously aware that amongst the Chinese there existed certain conditions and causes: which tended to produce dissatis feeling in their minds, such 1, The unsettled political state of the country, and suffering caused by the civil war among the people; 2. The lack of representation Chinese on the Municipal Counc'
3. The question of the rendition of the Mixed Courts The matter of the control of roads made by the Municipal Council Veyond the limits of the Settlements; 5. The question of the abolition of extraterritorial rights and the! abrogation of unequal Treaties.
Dr. Cline, in the course of his evidence, said that on May 30, ie was given a pamphlet by a student] on the Nanking Road containing Protests against certain by-laws which it was proposed to lay before a meeting of the Ratepayers to be held on June 2, 1925, relating to: a, The Regulation of the Press; b. The imposition of wharfage dues, and 2 Ghld labour inthe factories.
Besides these causes, which were topies of general discussion both in private and in the press, it appears from the evidence of Mr. Fessenden, Mr. Teesdale, Mr. MeEuen and spector Givens that _Bolshevist bartizans had been busily engaged in stirring up ill-feeling in the minds of the working classes. Students! and members of the teaching stof? of an institution known as Shanghai University had been espe: cially active in this respect.
'Then, in December 1924, strikes occurred in certain Japanese Mills in which great bitterness of feeling' was displayed and very considerable: damage to property was don several Japanese employees in the mills were injured, of whom one} subsequently died from his injuries.
The trouble at the Nagai Wata ill, which is situated-within Settle. ment limits, culminated on May 15, when police and others fired on tha] strikers and wounded some of them of whom a man of the name Koo) ung died on May 17.
During the morning of May 39. nothing abnormal appears to have occurred in the Louza District which was at that time, and is at presen! in charge of Inspector Everson, an experienced officer who has been in the Shanghai Municipal Police Force since July 1906.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.