APPENDIX  E

429
girls,  who  were  to  be  the  witnesses  in  the  case,  had  been  cared
for  by  the  municipal  police,  and  were  brought  to  the  court  in
their  charge.  When  the  case  came  to  be  remanded,  the  Assessor
marked  the  charge  sheet  “  Children  to  go  to  the  Door  of  Hope
pro  tern.”  and  instructed  the  police  to  take  them  there.  Mr.
Kuan,  however,  wished  to  keep  the  children  in  the  Mixed  Court
cells,  and  gave  his  orders  to  the  runners  to  take  them  away.
The  runners  went  to  remove  the  children,  but  the  police,  under
instructions  from  their  cadet  officer,  Mr.  Fenton,  refused  to  give
them  up.  There  was  some  hustling,  and  one  of  the  runners
struck  Inspector  Gibson  in  the  eye.  This  started  a  general  fight,
in  which  the  police  were  victorious  and  carried  off  the  children
and  prisoners  to  their  vans  in  the  yard.
During  the  fight  Mr.  Ching,  the  Assistant  Magistrate,  was
heard  shouting  from  the  Bench  to  the  native  municipal  constables
and  detectives,  in  Chinese,  that  they  were  Chinese  subjects,  and
if  they  resisted  the  Magistrate’s  orders  they  would  be  severely
punished.  The  native  constables,  however,  appear  to  have
considered  their  first  duty  lay  to  their  employers.
The  riot  was  sufficiently  serious  to  induce  Mr.  Fenton  to  go
to  the  telephone  to  send  a  message  for  reinforcements.  He  had
used  the  instrument  an  hour  before,  and  it  was  then  all  right,
but  now  the  mouthpiece  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  This  may
have  been  a  coincidence  merely.  At  all  events  it  did  not  render
the  telephone  unusable.  The  gates  of  the  compound  leading
into  the  road  were,  however,  shut  and  locked.  The  Magistrate,
Assistant  Magistrate,  and  Assessor  were  then  standing  in  the
middle  of  the  court.  Mr.  Fenton  went  to  ask  that  the  gates
fie  opened  to  allow  the  vans  to  go  out,  whereupon  the  Magistrate
turned  on  him  in  a  perfect  fury,  and  told  him  that  he  might
break  the  gates  open,  and  destroy  the  court  itself.  “You  may
trample  on  my  body,”  he  added,  and  then  strode  away.  The
gates  were  subsequently  opened,  and  the  children  removed.
1  he  sitting  of  the  Court  had,  of  course,  been  abruptly  suspended.
So  far  as  is  known  the  only  casualties  in  the  fight  were  sustained ­
  by  Inspector  Gibson  and  a  runner,  both  of  whom  were
slightly  damaged.
A  wild  statement  is  being  industriously  circulated  that  Mr.
fihing  was  hit  over  the  head  by  one  of  the  police.

The  Chinese  Version
The  Chinese  view  of  the  disturbance  on  Friday  in  the  Mixed
fiourt  is  represented  in  the  following  letter  from  “  One  who  was
Present.”  The  original  letter  is  in  Chinese.