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The cast for the Royal Oak Carnival Company's performance of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" on 26 February 1927 included Mrs McGrath as  the Lobster
The performance aboard the Revenge Class Battleship took place in Malta two days before the death of the Governor, General Sir Walter Norris Congreve VC

Life for businessmen and their families in the British Concession on the bund at Hankow was about to be turned upside down. Until now a Chinese face had rarely been seen on the streets but that was to change abruptly and British residents in Hankow like Alice were to experience many strange adventures. Donal McGrath's long experience as a naval officer was of little use in solving these new problems but he photographed the rapidly changing events and the steps taken to try and control the situation.

McGrath left Malta in HMS Wild Swan with the 3DF on the 5 August 1926  and arrived at Hankow on 10 September 1926 where he was appointed CO of HMS Woolston while Wild Swan continued down the Yangtze to Kiukiang. Cantonese troops were stationed outside the concession and dead bodies were left lying where they had fallen.  The left wing of the KMT controlled Hankow with the backing of the CCP and the labour unions and with the threat of Cantonese troops of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) intervening if needed. The British trained Trinidadian-Chinese lawyer, Eugene Chen, who spoke excellent English but only basic Chinese was in charge. His first act was to merge the administrations of the three towns of Hankow, Hanyang and Wuchang and name the new city Wuhan.

What could the four small V & W Class destroyers berthed alongside the Nergus Pontoon near the British Concession on the bund and a few hundred sailors do to protect British interests and residents against the left wing government of the newly unified city of Wuhan which had the popular support of the labour unions and the Cantonese troops outside the city should they be needed?  McGrath photographed the sandbag barriers erected at the entrance to the British concession guarded by sailors armed with rifles from the destroyers berthed nearby and the reserves with small field guns guarding the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. These forces were entirely inadequate and their officers knew that any attempt to use force to repel demonstrators which led to bloodshed would inevitably lead to them being overwhelmed.

Lt Cdr Donal Scott McGrath showed considerable ingenuity in devising a way of mounting one of HMS Woolston's 2-pound pom-pom guns on a carriage to that it could be used to reinforce the defence of British property on the bund but, wisely, it was never fired. It did, however, reach the attention of the Commander in Chief of British naval forces, Admiral Sir Edwyn Sinclair Alexander-Sinclair, who wrote a formal letter acknowledging his initiative.

Workers in the newly unified city of Wuhan organized themselves into trade unions which had 300,000 members by the end of the year and peasant uprisings spread throughout the countryside. With the backing of these emerging mass-movements the Kuomintang relocated from Guangzhou (Canton) in the south to Wuhan, and formed a new nationalist government in December 1926. The left and right wings of the KMT were united in their resentment of the foreigners in the concessions which were not subject to Chinese law and governed themselves. The press cuttings below were pasted by McGrath into the family photograph album and show how British attempts to resist the overwhelming force of a popular uprising which had the backing of the Wuhan government and the NRA came to nothing.

The occupation of the British Concession in the first week of January 1927 and the treatment of the wives and children of the British evacuated to Shanghai described in emotive terms by the Argus  and The Times was a national humiliation but the trade between the Britain and China benefited both countries. In February Eugene Chen, the Foreign Minister of the Wuhan Government,  negotiated the Chen – O’Malley Agreement with Owen St Claire O’Malley, the acting Councilor at the British Legation in China, which provided for the withdrawal of Chinese troops and a combined British-Chinese administration of the concession.

After this scare the CiC China requested reinforcements and in January six troop carriers took a Shanghai Defence Force of three Brigades (16,000 men) to defend the International Settlement in China's largest city. On 3 April riots in the Japanese Concession of Hankow at Wuhan led to the burning of Japanese property and the firing of machine guns at protestors which led to dozens of deaths. Eugene Chen accepted responsibility for the damage and the Japanese withdrew their troops but the Chinese troops joined in the looting. The Japanese evacuated three quarters of their residents including all the women and children.

McGrath’s command of Woolston ended in March 1927 when he took over Wanderer and handed over Woolston to Cdr. Charles Cage Stuart RN. The Navy had withdrawn the men guarding British property on the bund but McGrath set armed guards on the Negus Pontoon to prevent any attempt to board HMS Wanderer and this provoked the incident in the press report (on left) and the very different interpretation of it in the leaflet seeking the support of the foreign sailors published on 16 May. 

The 5th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held in Wuhan between 27 April - 9 May and was attended by overseas observers including the British trade unionist Tom Mann and  Henry Sara of the CP of Great Britain and the future US Communist party leader Earl Browder. By now it was apparent that the strength of the labour unions combined with the influence of the CCP and the lack of discipline of the Cantonese NRA was creating chaos in Hankow and damaging the economy. The "May instructions", a secret telegram from Stalin to Mikhail Borodin, his representative in China, instructing the Wuhan Government to raise a force of 50,000 to crush the right wing reactionaries in the KMT led by Chiang Kai-Shek at Nanking was so obviously impossible of realisation that it led to the reconciliation of the Wuhan Government with the KMT and the final irretrievable split with the Communist Party of China. Chiang Kai-shek, firmly established in his new capital of Nanking, felt strong enough to turn on his erstwhile allies, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP was violently suppresed in Shanghai on 12 April and subsequently throughout the areas controlled by the KMT.  On  15 July the Wuhan Government purged Communists from its ranks  and on 21 September made an official statement that they would relocate to Nanjing, ending the short lived left leaning Wuhan government.

In May 1927 McGrath was recommended for special promotion by Captain (D), Third Destroyer Flotilla and Commander-in-Chief, China, on "having acquitted himself exceedingly well in difficult circumstances during recent operations on Yangtze" and on 30 June McGrath was reappointed in command of Wanderer on promotion to Commander. On 31 October McGrath and Lt Cdr Edward L. Berthon RN, CO of HMS Wivern,  visited Wuchang on the opposite bank of the Yangzte from Hankow and their report was forwarded by Rear Admiral to the CiC China. Despite the turbulent events taking place in Nanking and Hankow there was really nothing for the V & Ws to do other than lie low and make themselves as unobtrusive as possible while remaining on hand in case their assistance should be needed. Lt Eric W. Bush RN in HMS Veteran described the situation aptly: