During the afternoon communica tion with the Chinese military a thorities had been opened and they had promised to send a force to restore order, but, with the exeeption of the handful of men previous. ly mentioned, none were seen until after 6 o'clock, when a squad of perhaps 20 men arrived, 'Through Jan interpreter, the officer in command of these men informed the British authorities that the mob was entirely out of control and that, if single shot should be fired, not a single, foreigner in Hankow' would be left alive. Ho suggested that the Chinese police should be allow-Jed to take control and that the British defence force should retire. This proposal was accepted and all the Marines and sailors were with-
Jdrawn'to the sandbag defences.
Despite the obligation they. had Jacceptei, the 'Chinese police appar lently did nothing and by 7 o'clock the mob had so far advanced that the sandbag' fort was almost entire-lly surrounded.—About this time, Mx. Goffe, the British Consul-Gen-got into touch with a Chinese itary officer, who went into the Ewo building to hasten the arrival troops. 'These, apparently, factually all the time had been Jat hand, for within a quarter of fan hour' they marched in, At this time the situation, from the deriders' point of view, was almost hopeless, ax they were practically surrounded and stone-thr jing on as vigorously pite the supposed truce further action by the British was to withdraw their Lewis gurly mounted on a motor truck, ° to" position diagonally across the Bur un front of the Ewo building, order to be clear of the surrounding mob, whilst the Marines fell. from the sandbag defences and tot up positions by the wagon.
The Chinese troops were poi inside the Concession, from the Road to the foreshore, to hold back the crowd. Several of their officers then mounted the sandbags and harangued the crowd, telling ther that, if they would "go back, the foreigners had agreed to retire to Ewo Road, For about 15 minutes, the crowd would not budge, but finally they were persuaded' and abou 7.45 p.m, there was @ general retirement. By 8 p.m. the whole Bund was clear and was held by Jo line of Chinese troops at the level of Ewo Rond. The interpreter than asked the British to retire altogether from the Bund, in order to avoid farther trouble,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.