THE INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT IN SHANGHAI.

HL Deb 05 February 1936 vol 99 cc439-46

LORD MARLEY rose to ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any information regarding the alleged use of force against unarmed student demonstrators by the police (including British subjects) in the International Settlement in Shanghai in December, 1935; and to move for Papers.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, I make an apology, for placing this Motion down at such very short notice, but I did give notice to the noble Earl who represents the Foreign Office. The object of the Motion is to suggest to him the information which it might be desirable for the Government to obtain, if they agree that it is desirable that we should know a little, more about what is going on. During recent years there has been great activity in China on the part of the Japanese, which has aroused widespread opposition among patriotic Chinese, and this opposition has shown itself in a large number of demonstrations by Chinese students all over China. The reports from China show that these demonstrations have universally been entirely orderly. There has been no disorder. There has been no opposition by the police, and there has been no shooting or damage to life or limb. Reports from Canton, Tientsin, Szechuan, and Nanking all say the same thing. In particular, from Nanking, the present capital of China, the reports are that the discipline and self-control of the students and the police were admirable.

When it comes to Shanghai we find that the earlier demonstrations by the students were entirely orderly. The students were received by the Mayor of Greater Shanghai, General Wu Tehcheu, who promised them the support of the civic authorities in their complaints against Japanese depredations and their desire for the patriotic defence of their country. They were also supported by General Chiang Kai-shek, the Generalissimo, who sent them a telegram saying that he was entirely of their opinion that it was desirable to organise nationally against Japanese depredations. The civic authorities in Shanghai even went to the length of putting the autobus service of that City at the disposal of the students to enable them to get back to their various colleges.

The report in regard to their demonstrations in Peking (or Peiping as it is now called) is that the action of the police in firing on students was entirely due to the police themselves. I read in the North China Herald a few days ago the report of the special correspondent, who was an eye witness, and who said that the case had been extremely badly managed by the authorities. His words were these: Almost from the very start the police attempted to break up by force entirely peaceable processions and in every case it was the police who started the attack on remarkably well disciplined and, if anything, rather nervous school children, who were completely unarmed. The average age of the demonstrators in Peking, he says, was well below eighteen, both boys and girls, and the police were firing ball cartridge on these young people.

THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (EARL STANHOPE)

Can the noble Lord give me the date?

LORD MARLEY

The North China Herald of December 25, 1935. In Peking the Chinese police were under the control of the Japanese, and I suppose it is not unnatural that the Japanese should desire to repress what might be considered to be anti-Japanese demonstrations. But when it comes to Shanghai the matter is entirely different. The position in Shanghai was broadly this. Numbers of students from the Universities and schools assembled on December 24 at about nine o'clock in the morning in the Nanking road. There have been a number of letters in the Press by eye-witnesses of what went on. They said that the foreign police in Shanghai were clearing, the students, taking their banners from them, tearing them up, and trampling on them. There were indignant protests from foreigners who were watching what was going on, particularly because the demonstrators were mainly schoolboys and schoolgirls. One letter rather indicated the attitude of a certain few English people. The writer protested against these scholars parading in the International Settlement at all. If they wished to parade, he said, let them do so in the Chinese City. When you realise that Shanghai is a City of about 3½million people, of whom only 9,000 are British, and the total number of foreigners is 50,000 or thereabouts, it indicates a most undesirable point of view on the part of British people living in other countries to claim that the Chinese have no right to demonstrate in their own City.

I have a letter on this matter from two persons who themselves witnessed what went Oil. One is an American lady who is entirely trustworthy, and the other is a very eminent Chinese lady who is very well-known throughout the world and whose evidence cannot be but reliable. I venture to read extracts from this letter, because I think it is desirable that the view of eye-witnesses should be given. The letter says this: 'Moved by patriotic feelings, Chinese students from all schools 'and Universities ma Shanghai following the lead of students in other parts of China in resisting the dismemberment by Japan actions, gathered for a peaceful demonstration in Nanking road in the early morning of December 24. These students, many of them children of middle school age, were perfectly peaceful and orderly. They formed into group, according to their schools, and began distributing leaflets bearing national liberation slogans. There was no kind of disorder until suddenly a band of foreign police, commanded by British police officers armed with clubs and short -truncheons, appeared and began an attack. Soon a fully armed body of Sikh police arrived and joined in the attack. The students were absolutely unarmed. They had only leaflets, slogans, and banners. Despite tins, one police officer 'whose cap and arm band bore the number 57 S.M.P. began beating the students over the head. The other police followed his example, with the result that many students fell with blood streaming over their faces and from their mouths. We counted eleven unconscious students lying in their own blood. Even when unconscious and down, still the British police bent down and continued beating the prostrate forms. Riot vans appeared, and several students were arrested for assaulting the police. The boys and girls had only their bare hands, yet they were reported to have attacked and injured a number of British police officers. On the same clay a British police officer of the name of Lovell arrested a student whom he charged with having assaulted and injured him. The boy was sentenced to fifteen days imprisonment, suspended for two years provided the boy showed good conduct. The Shanghai municipal police are reported to have appealed to a higher Court because of the leniency of the Chinese Court. It was never mentioned that the Chinese student was only fourteen years of age. The question is really of greater importance than mere student demonstrations in a far distant city. May I remind the House that it is vital to Great Britain that we should have the good will of the Chinese people? Our trade with China is by no means unimportant, and if there is illwill on the part of the Chinese they are perfectly capable of applying boycotts to British goods such as they have applied to Japanese goods. If I may venture to give figures, during the last five years, partly owing to the anti-Japanese boycott in China, the share of Japan in Chinese imports has dropped from 25 per cent. in 1930 to 14 per cent. in 1932 and 12 per cent. in 1934. In the same period, because of the good will the Chinese have for Great Britain, our trade has risen from 8 per cent. in 1930 to 11.3 per cent. in 1932 and 12.1 per cent. in 1934. I take these figures from the Department of Overseas Trade Report on Economic Conditions in China, 1933–35, just published. That, document points out that the figures show that quite apart from the great potentialities of the Chinese market, the trade is already of sufficient value to merit the earnest attention of United Kingdom manufacturers and exporters. But however much our manufacturers and exporters pay attention to the details of their trade, they cannot trade if there is anti-British feeling among the Chinese people.

The Chinese may not be entirely well informed. I notice that habitually they talk of the "British" International Settlement in China, which is an entire misconception. The International Settlement is not British controlled in the same way as it was a few years ago; it is under international control. Nevertheless we always have talk of the "British" controlled police and the British "International Settlement. If the Chinese think that the British police are using undue force to put down peaceful demonstration by students—who, if they demonstrated in a like way in this country, would receive the support of all right-thinking men and women, because they are merely showing their patriotism and their desire to defend their country against attack from outside—it seems that we must tend to become extremely unpopular. For those reasons I have put this Question in the hope that the Government may make inquiries into the position. If in fact undue force has been used it might be in the interests of employment in this country, of the people and trade of this country, as well as of international justice, to do what is possible to mitigate these conditions. I beg to move for Papers.

EARL STANHOPE

My Lords, as the noble Lord opposite knows, I have no official information which I can give him. He only informed me of this Motion yesterday afternoon, and I have not had time to wire to Shanghai and get a reply. But I am bound to add that the report which I have read in the Press on this matter differs very materially indeed from the one he has given to your Lordships. I have read a long article in, I think, the North China Daily Courier, in which it is pointed out that these students held up the whole traffic on the railway going from Shanghai to Peking for no less than 30 hours, with losses on the railway amounting to between 300,000 and 400,000 Chinese dollars.

LORD MARLEY

I do not think that was December 24.

EARL STANHOPE

Yes, it was December 24.

LORD MARLEY

I am talking about another part of the City.

EARL STANHOPE

The railway station is fairly close to the International Settlement. It is not very far outside, because the account goes on to say that these groups of students went into the station and tried to break their way into the Settlement. It is quite obvious that if you are going to have demonstrations which are to take charge of the whole of the railways of a country, any Government, whether it is municipal or national, must take action to secure control again. As I read this unofficial account—I do not know if it is more true than the noble Lord's, but it describes more the sort of thing that does happen in Shanghai and elsewhere. It says that the police, too, were unarmed, that they put up barricades to endeavour to stop students going into the station, but the weight of numbers and the general excitement were such that they utterly failed to achieve that purpose. The students, some 400 in number, got into the train and remained there. Obviously a railway does not earn$300,000, or rather have paid over to it within thirty hours that large sum of money, by the amount of traffic which comes to it from Europeans. It was obviously the Chinese travellers who were prevented from travelling much more than Europeans. Therefore it was to the interest of China even more than that of Shanghai itself that order should be restored in that area of the City.

As regards the students being unarmed, the report in the paper that I saw stated that three of the inspectors of the International Police were very severely injured. One was very badly knocked about the head with bamboo poles. That indicates that the armaments, at any rate, were less lethal than those that are sometimes used in riots in other parts of the world. The injuries received by the police show that the weapons used were not to be despised. I do not know whether it is true that the Shanghai police may have used undue violence, but I will certainly make inquiries about it. I would remind the noble Lord that these police are under the control of the Municipal Council, mostly composed of business men, and the last thing they would allow their police to do is to attack the Chinese unduly, and so raise up a spirit of bad feeling between Chinese and foreigners who are engaged in business in that vast country. That is obviously against the interests of everybody on that Council and business people living in Shanghai. Therefore I am bound to say I very much doubt the accuracy of the information which the noble Lord has given to the House. It would obviously be only right that the House should be given more accurate information, as I think it will prove to be, when inquiry is made. I shall certainly ask my noble friend the Secretary of State to make inquiries from Shanghai, and as soon as the information has arrived I shall be very glad to communicate it to the noble Lord. Perhaps it would be better that it should be communicated to the House itself on some future occasion. I am afraid I have no Papers which I can lay.

LORD MARLEY

My Lords, I am very tau.ch obliged to the noble Earl for his reply. I think that the suggestion he has made is perfectly adequate. When a reply is received to the inquiry which is to be made, we will then put down a further Question so that the information can be given to the House. I think it ought to be understood that the railway station is a long way from the Nanking road and that the noble Earl and myself have been dealing with two totally different sides of the demonstration.

EARL STANHOPE

As I understood it, it flowed straight from one to the other—that is according to the account in the paper which I read.

LORD MARLEY

I am afraid I did not see that particular newspaper. I got my information mainly from letters of eyewitnesses who wrote to me personally as to what they had seen. Of course there is a considerable distance between the two points. Even though it may be the desire of the Shanghai Municipal Council that the police should not use undue force, we know that the police sometimes do use undue force either because they are inadequate in numbers or use bad judgment at a time of stress or trouble. I hope that the Shanghai Municipal Council will support any suggestion that the force used by the police should be the minimum necessary to maintain order. I am very much obliged to the noble Earl for his promise, and I beg leave to withdraw my Motion.

Motion, by leave, withdrawn.