Hongkong, Feb, 7.
Reports received here from Canton state that the Chief of Police at Canton issued an appeal to the popula: tion to-day in which he exhorted the inhabitants to maintain order and assured them that martial law will be lifted during the next few days if the situation allow Some 700 members of a pro-Japanese separatist group, which was mainly responsible for last week's disorders at Canton, have been arrested by the Chinese police and it is therefore generally expected that complete order will soon be restored in the city, Police investigations are said to have established that the conspirators who organized the disorders included some 100 Japanese who entered Canton illegally, The headquarters of the conspirators were at Fengchuen, a suburb of Canton. It stated that they planned to assist the Japanese troops in an attack on Canton by signalling the position and movements of the Chinese troops defending the city. The plan was that the Japanese navy and air force, aided by the information given by these conspirators, should bombard Canton. In the ensuing panic the conspirators intended to occupy the government buildings and proclaim an autonomous government, The discovery of the plot was due to the wit o a Chinese officer who posed as a Japanese agent and thereby gained the confidence of the conspirators,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.