Battles At Shanghai.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 24, 1913:
Rebels Repulsed — Shells in Concession, and a Foreigner Hurt.
    SHANGHAI, Thursday, July 24.— Southern rebels, according to some reports numbering 10,000, and according to other reports only 3,000, attacked the Kiang-Nan arsenal at 3 o'clock yesterday morning. The defenders, who did not exceed 2,000, were strongly intrenched, and, assisted by the navy, repelled three separate attacks. The fighting lasted until 7:30 o'clock.
    The flagship Hai-Chu poured a deadly fire on the attacking forces, raking the plain north of the arsenal. Three other cruisers and a gunboat scattered their fire in the same direction.
    According to the first estimates, 600 rebels were killed. Later estimates largely exceed this figure, but of the 1,000 now said to have been killed it is asserted that most were innocent peasants.
    Another attack was repulsed at 1 o'clock this morning, the southerners being unable to gain any ground. The attacks were delivered simultaneously from three sides. The thick vegetation and insufficiency of men prevented the garrison from attempting a sortie and enabled the rebels to fall back to their camps and reorganize their forces.
    Reports are current that Japanese were fighting in the southern ranks.
    Foreign volunteers were called out to guard the settlement. A few shells burst in the French concession and a French nun and several Chinese were wounded.
    It is expected that a foreign naval brigade will be landed. Volunteers are erecting barricades around the approaches to the settlement.
    Many shells from the arsenal fell into the French concession. A French nun and several Chinese were wounded. Houses were damaged there, and much damage was done to the Chinese city. Many of the Southerners fled to the French concession, where the police disarmed them.

    PEKING, Thursday, July 24.— The Government professes to view the revolutionary movement in the South without alarm.
    The Southern troops from Nanking, known as the "Punish Yuan" expedition, have suffered a fresh reverse. They have retreated from Su-Chow-Foo, and taken up a strong position at Linhwai-Kwan, in the adjoining province of Ngan-Hwei, where the Tien-Tsin-Nanking railway crosses the Hwei River, to await the arrival of the Canton expedition, which will, it is expected, land 15,000 troops at Pukow.
    The Government declares that the navy will sink every ship engaged in transporting the Canton expedition if it ever starts.
    A manifesto has been issued stripping Gen. Chen Chi-Mei, the ex-Minister of Commerce, and Gen. Huang-Sing, the ex-Generalissimo of the revolutionary army, and now commander of the Southern Army, of their ranks and orders, offering a reward to any of their followers who arrest or kill them, and a pardon to all the rebels who surrender, except the leaders.
    President Yuan Shih-Kai's firm determination to suppress the rebellion is restoring confidence among the wavering Chinese, and has elicited the approval of all the legations with the exception of the Russian and Japanese.
    The Chinese press argues in bitter terms that the rebels have been enabled to perfect their plans through the existence of the system of foreign settlements and concessions, and that if the system did not exist the rebellion would not have occurred.

    LONDON, Thursday, July 24.— The Peking correspondent of The Daily Telegraph sent the following dispatch last night:
    "The declaration of martial law here shows that the Northern Government admits its desperate position. This synchronizes with the creation of a complete confederate Government at Nanking. Parliament has not yet been dissolved, but it is unlikely that it will survive a week.
    "The principal newspaper organ of the Kwo-Ming-Tang party has been suppressed.
    "The war news is baffling, but foreign military experts now believe that the Southerners are in far greater strength than has been supposed. They are pursuing aggressive tactics everywhere.
    "A private dispatch says that the Southerners have not been repulsed from the Pukow Railroad. Reinforcements are coming in daily and Kwang-Tung promises 60,000 troops, half of which are due this week.
    "Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, the former Provisional President, issued a manifesto to-night, irrevocably backing the rebellion. He makes three appeals, the first to Yuan Shi-Kai, recounting the southern grievances and declaring that just resistance to intolerable tyranny is no rebellion. He concludes: 'I am determined to oppose you as firmly as I did the Manchus. Retirement is absolutely your only course in the face of the present crisis.'
    "The other appeals are addressed to the officials, and the people, and are in the same tone.
     "Dr. Sun Yat-Sen said to me personally: 'This fight will continue if it takes ten years. I stake my life on the issue.'"