§ *MR. REESI beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what force, naval, military, and police, is available at Shanghai for the defence of British merchants and of British trade.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (SIR EDWARD GREY, Northumberland, Berwick)On December 31st last the force available for the defence of the European community in the international settlement at Shanghai was as follows:—Volunteers, forty-four officers and 930 non-commissioned officers and men. Police, European, 130; Indian, 201; Chinese, 753. In addition foreign warships of small draught can ascend the river as far as Shanghai, and larger ships can get to within fifteen miles of Shanghai. It frequently happens that one or more foreign warships are lying in the river.
§ MAJOR ANSTRUTHER-GRAYIs there any artillery there?
§ SIR EDWARD GREYI cannot say.