As a result of the propaganda a mob was incited to attack thepremises of the Municipal Council, and the police stations. The police,having been instructed not to use their firearms, were unable to defendthemselves, and in the assault made on the Louza Police Station, wereoverpowered, and the station set on fire. Panic reigned throughout theSettlement, and the lives of foreigners were endangered.
Finally the riot was suppressed by the combined action of thepolice, volunteers, and landing parties from the foreign men-of-war inharbour. Captain A. M. Boisragon, the Chief of the Municipal policein 1905, gave the following account of this serious incident:Captain Boisragon"s Report“The Louza Station was made the scene of the most determinedattack, the Foreign and Sikh Police were driven in, amidst a hail ofbricks and stones, after having charged the attackers a dozen times.
The attack commenced at about 9.30 o"clock and lasted till 10 o"clock,when the latter obtained the upper hand, forced an entry into thestation, turned out the fires in the grates of the various rooms on theground floor, and thus set fire to the station in three or four differentplaces. The alarm for fire was sounded at 10 a.m. and the Brigadearrived on the scene some minutes after.
“In the meantime the attack on the Town Hall was being pressedwith vigour, but the Police there fired on the mob, killing three men inthe crowd, and two other innocent shop assistants sitting behind closedshutters on the opposite side of the road—an unavoidabe misfortune.
This somewhat cowed but did not disperse the crowd, which was finallydriven into side streets on the arrival of a landing party from the Britishwarships in port. In addition to the three Chinese killed at the TownHall, and one at the Kiangse and Nanking Road corner, three otherswere shot in the neighbourhood, making seven in all, but it is believedthat others died from wounds received. The total number of woundedcould never be ascertained.“There is evidence to show that the uprising was organized bypersons of a higher class than loafers and beggars, and that studentseducated abroad had a good deal to do with it.
Dispute about Procedure in Mixed CourtThe Mixed Court had become unpopular with the Chinesecommunity, inasmuch as it expressed very clearly the dominantposition of the foreigner in the control of the Settlement.