§ 77. Mr. LANSBURYasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will state how many British citizens have been injured or killed in Hankow, Canton and Shanghai during the past two years; and can he give an estimate of the number of Chinese who were killed or injured during the disorders which took place in Shanghai in May, 1925, Canton in June, 1925, and Wanhsien on the 5th September, 1926?
Mr. LOCKER-LAMPSONI presume the first part of the hon. Member's question is intended to refer solely to British subjects killed or injured in the course of anti-foreign disturbances at the three places named. With this proviso, the total number of British subjects killed during the past two years is three (one at Shanghai and two at Canton). As regards British subjects injured no exact statistics are available, as injuries are not in every case reported. There were during the disturbances at Shanghai in 1925 59 instances of violent attacks on foreigners. The report of the disturbances at Hankow in Jane, 1925, states that several British subjects were injured, and in Canton, as was stated in the answer given to the hon. Member for Plaistow on the 13th July, 1925, four British subjects were wounded. It may in this connection be pointed out that it has been necessary for British subjects to evacuate numerous towns in China, including Hankow, on account of the danger of mob violence.
283 The Chinese casualties in Shanghai in the disturbances of May, 1925, amounted to 12 killed and 17 wounded; at Canton in June, 1925, to 37 killed and 70 wounded; at Wanhsien on the 5th September, 1926, there were under 100 civilians killed, about 140 injured, and 260 soldiers killed and wounded.
I would remind the hon. Member that in the case of Shanghai the Chinese casualties were inflicted not by troops at all, but by the municipal police over whom His Majesty's Government have no control, and at Canton in the course of a disturbance in which the troops of another Power besides ourselves were engaged.
§ Major the Marquess of TITCHFIELDHow long has the hon. Member been the liaison officer of Borodin?