Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1927. THE CHINESE SITUATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVII, Issue 10902, 27 April 1927, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1927. THE CHINESE SITUATION.

The Chinese situation becomes m re kaleidoscopic and more confv ing. While the Chinese forces a at pause in their international warfare and trying, apparently, t. arrive at some adjustment of tiie tangle in which they are involved, some fighting appears still to he going on as “Nanking is in confusion” and a “force of a few hundred Russians, with 10,000 northern soldiers “is surrounded at Pukow” and is whiling away the time before being captured by “dropping shells from an armoured car into Nanking streets.” We are told in one place that “until the civil war decides whether Chen or Chiang Kai-shek is going to control Southern China, or whether there is going to be a further subdivision, the Powers negotiations regarding the Nanking outrages are at a standstill.” Meanwhile the Powers do not seem to be wasting much time with the hypothesis. They are reported to be “seriously dealing with the sanctions, and contemplating the declaration of a huge neutral zone between 25 and 50 miles in width, from the mouth of the Yangtse to Ichang, a thousand miles up the river, including all the cities on both banks; also a declaration of neutrality in Canton, Tsingtao and Pekin, thus wiping out the sources of revenue of the wart lords.” This is being held up because the Japanese wish 1 to have the area made even wider to include the Shantung portion of Manchuria in the neutral zone. There seems to be a likelihood of a successful 1 issue out of this complication, and the ; presentation of a new Note is imminent. Political observers are reported to be of opinion that the , enforcement of sanctions would cause the pacification of the Yangtse and there would be a trade boom upon the resumption of foreign internal trade. In the meantime President Coolidge, either with his tongue in his : cheek or otherwise, is assuring ■ the United States Press Association that the American forces in China contemplate no aggression in China, hut are only there to safeguard the interests of missionaries and business men. He is assured that an adequate set- : tlement of wrongs will ultimately he made by the victors. “In the turmoil and strife of the present time,” he told the assembled pressmen, “we realise fully that forces may he let loose temporarily beyond their power to control, which may do injury to American nationals. Our forces are. i n American waters to guard against this eventuality.” And the very same cable which conveys this soothing assurance comes the news on the authority of an American' pilot (for what it is worth) that “during the past months in Yangtse waters a little war has been carried on between American and British warships and the Chinese soldiery along the banks of the river,” that there have been 35 separate engagements, that eight British 1 and five American cruisers, destroyers, and gunboats have been participating, four Chinese forts' have been rendered useless, 50 field guns disabled, numberless machine guns wrecked and 3000 Chi- . nese soldiers have been killed and 1

wounded, while hundreds of houses have been destroyed. Un this authority it is stated that only a “general cleaning out will be effective,” and this is in contemplation. From all this the only definite thing we are able to gather is that the Chinese situation is a pretty kettle of fish, and by the way the reinforcements ate being' hurried along it will he a great deal .worse before it is a great deal better.