"I left on Sunday morning and the same procedure had to be gone through. The barrier is supposed to officially open at 5 am. and I was there on time in order to get a train which left at 6 o'clock. The barrier was still closed at 5.30 a.m. however and I therefore made up my mind at least to attempt getting the train which left at 8.28 a.m.
"At about 545 a.m. the barrier was opened and I produced my railway tickets and passport. I was made to undress again and the same careful examination was made of my suitcase. It was obvious that these vari-Ous formalities were drawn out so that I would miss my train particularly when the same deadlock was arrived at again on my refusal to take off my trousers" he continued.
Asked whether it was true that the Chinese did not want to return to the Concession, the Briton said that thousands of them, mostly coolies employed on foreign wharves, stood in queues at the various entrances to the Concession but that only four were permitted to enter every twenty minutes. It was these coolies, the traveller opined, who were most hit by the blockade because they could not earn their daily bread not being able to go to their places of work.
"Two of them, tired of waiting," he continued, "tried to swim: across the river but were stopped and ar-Tested.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.