Monday, Sep. 07, 1925
Disorder
In Canton, center of anti-British ire, the radical South China Government was captured by the super-radical Whampoa college cadets, who arrested 100 officials, patrolled the city, set the old stone-mud walls to echoing a falsetto communism.
In Shanghai, international city of the central coast, L'Echo de Chine, ridiculed the "friendly weakness" of the U. S.: "If Senator Borah had to live in the interior of China he would realize the value of extra-territoriality."
Four Chinese dockyard workmen assaulted a coolie as a conclusion to interchange of insults such as "A plague upon your grandmother." The four assaulters, taken to prison, were followed by a dockyard mob. Police fired, killed two, wounded several.
In Amoy, picturesque port of Fukien province, opposite the Japanese island of Formosa, local Chinese merchants expressed themselves as being weary of the boycott engineered by their compatriots. They instituted attempts to lift business from its paralytic cot, to open schools this month.
Off Shore, between Canton and Shanghai, pirates were reported active. The legend of the "Pirate Queen," a muscular, almond-eyed, trouser-wearing female came to life. She and part of her polyandrian crew boarded the S.S. Kwanchung, seized it before it left Canton. At a prearranged point, they clambered to the bridge, poured fatal shot into four seamen. Their confederates came alongside, and presently the whole bottom including the Chinese Captain, two Chinese Christian preachers, 50 passengers, steamed to an unknown piratical cove. The Queen demands $120,000 ransom.
From Peking, M. Karakhan Soviet Ambassador to China, astute troublemaker, departed for Moscow.
The rest of the diplomatic corps, officially oblivious to M. Karakhan, reported acceptances of their various governments of China's invi- tation, (TIME, July 20) to a Customs Conference, awaited the ar- rival of delegates.
John Van A. McMurray, U. S. Minister, was advised that his fellow delegate, Lawyer Silas Strawn of Chicago, had completed his conferences with Washington officials, was about to leave for Peking accompanied by innumerable papers and experts.