In order to complete its in qui and to convince the Chinese of impartiality, the Commission Friday June 12 and Saturday Ju 13 took the depositions of ry its on ne ix Chinese witnesses who were brought before us by the agency, of Admiral Tsai Ting-Kan and the President of the Chinese ber of Commerce of Shanghai, The latter himself Drought the witnesses and_ intro duced them June 13. at our me on This shows that Mr. Fesser was particularly questioned as to the reasons for which the Municipal Council did not cancel the special meeting of ratepayers culled for June 2 We are further shown an extract from the police report:
back to May xe 'As your Excellency will see, 1 he Chiness ey lence, which forms' An-next 10, was not sufficiently precise to invalidate the statement of facts set out Annexe No. 7.
In addi-to the above, the Commission, tly it arrived, got into tou ich with Admiral Taal and the ho had also-come to inquire into the ts of Ma tary of 0 jews with he June 10 The conversation was of on the morning of Ju We then examined " document w ich from the evidence of Mr. MeEuen, appeared to be very important, This document (Annexe 5) ise titled: "Extraet from Memorandum of Serious it among. the Chinese; public opinion seized on them and construed them in a very inaccurate way, ieular seized upon the phrase: Shoot to kill."
At this second mccti the Com-1 2 work. In obedience to its 3 to me quire as to the material nature of the events of May 30 to June 2 we set ourselves to learn there facts as completely as possible: the American, British and Italian members of the Ca: districts involved; they ques the poli actors who gave the orders to fire on May 30 and June 1 and took evidence regarding the result of their inquiry will Lo found in Annexis—6A, OH, 6C, 6D. Between the documents GD and 6C x difference will be noticed, but the result of the inform: by us is put together in Annexe 7, which may be considered _as representing as nedsly as possible the facts that we obtained.
Chinese Authori oglizence 'The Japansse member of the Commission, for his part obtained information' as to the incidents which, from May 15 cowards, upset the work in the mill Wata Kaisha Ca, pointed out to the Chinese Investigators that the two inquiti ies should be parallel but not joi and that they called for as complete an exchange of information as possi ble but not a fusion of it.
In point of fact, no documents were communicate ti between the two Commissions, but contact was ke} pt and impressions exchanged, accor ing to our instructions, We pressed our investigations te the furthest possible limit, that to say without infringing on matte of the judiciary (which was all he time at work om its own account); we collected information as full ly fas possible, but of course we I ad no power to compel witnesses to ive evidence; and we believe th at we are in a position to submit to tour Excellency, in all sincerity, but with the reserve which the vei riy nature of our inquiry demands, 1 ihe following conclusions, The Question of Responsibility Precautions taken n the Scttlement were naturally based on the information abt ned by the police.
The police service of informa ti vell organized according to 1 he rman of the Municipal Coun cil and the Commissioner of Police, Both of these gentlemen declar that they have enough men sid money for this service (Anne: xe Further than this, in looking: at the extract from the police report (Annexe No. 4) one may sce th at the police were kept well infamy ed by the own people on all that happening in Chinese territory in the Settlement. has been Tuekin Jeverybody knows that any. information on. the interpre by, the per-or the trouble of May 7 following days. Annexe No. 9, the "The Chairman of the Municip sal Council and Mr. McEuen are 2 in declaring that they had not foreseen any prospect of grave events on May 30, but nevertheless they did not judge the general situation in the same way: Mr. Fessenden generally foresaw trouble coming and Mr, MeEuen did not.
The Events of May 2000 7 ile it appears to the Commission, that, by reason of the instructions of the police (Annexe No: 5) and of the behaviour of the crowd, Inspector Everson may have believed himself obliged to fire, a doubt exists in the "minds of the Commission as to whether reinforeements of the police might not have been given him in advance oF brought up in time to keep the crowd under control and prevent: the necessity of firing.
The events of June 1 and 2 prow sent themselves much more clearly: in both cases the forces on duty to keep order were deliberatory tacked and they replied, Organization of the Settlement and its Police The Chairman of the Municipal Council declared to the Commission that he was not aware of the sreetions, to the police for time of disorder. These instructions (Annexe No. 5) date from 1919, It ig for experts to decide whether they ought to be revised.
As for the strength of the police, Mr, McEuen is positive that there is nothing to be desired in this respect and that these forces are perfectly sufficient in normal times, different.
Mr. Fessenden's opinion is slightly
If lack of ce-operation between the police of the Settlement and the Chinese police continues, or if a state of disorder ix prolonged in Shanghai, it will be advantageous to increase the police forces. It might, perhaps, be advisable to look towards an increase of the forces regularly kept in reserve and. the men of this force should have means of transporting themselves very rapidly to the danger spot in case of trouble.
Measures to Suggest (o the Chinese Annexes 3 and 9 show what is the responsibility of the Chinese in the whole affair. It would. seem that there is ground for the following demands:—
1. A responsible Chinese authority to keep firm control aver the Chinese districts of Shanghai, 2. Careful rurveillancs over the Chinese police by. this authority so that he may he alle to assure hima self that:—
(a) employment ix petent men (b) that the police 6 not allow themselves to he influenced by anti-foreiyen agitation (e) that the police observe thole duties and the Chinese laws particular as regards strikes, which fs not done at present; (a) that the duties of the police are precisely laid down; (c) that the chief of the Chinese police ce-operates frankly with the heads of the police forces of the foreign settle ments, We have the honour to remain,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.