Strike spreads to Hong Kong
The seamen's strike of 1922 was solely about money. But the industrial strife of summer 1925 was purely political, brewed by unrest in China and spread by intimidation and violence. The Post reported that agitators had been shipped in from Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The strike in Hong Kong had been sparked by an incident on May 30, when anti-Japanese rioters in Shanghai clashed with its British-dominated police force. Seven student demonstrators were killed when shots were fired.
But the Hong Kong industrial action was overshadowed by the deaths in Guangzhou of scores of protesters shot when the British and French concessions on Shamian Island were attacked as anti-European feeling mounted. Cadets from Whampoa Military Academy marched on the foreign enclaves at the head of a mob. When they started shooting, British and French troops fired into the crowd.
'Then the French got busy with their machine-guns and mowed into the crowd,' one shocked Englishwoman told the Post after evacuation to Hong Kong. 'Hundreds of attackers went down like flies,' the paper added.
'Any attempts at disorder will be relentlessly suppressed,' vowed Governor Sir Edward Stubbs, but that didn't stop seamen walking off ships, waiters and cooks leaving hotels and restaurants, and students boycotting lectures.
Hoarders provoked food shortages and there were runs on banks. The government assured the public there were plentiful supplies of flour and rice and encouraged the jobless to leave Hong Kong. But by June 24 all Chinese banks had closed, river vessels had ceased running and coasters lay without crews.