WAR IN CHINA.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 224, 20 September 1924, Page 7

WAR IN CHINA.

— '■■« A CRUSHING BLOW. BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION. DESERTING TO ENEMY. .By Cable.—Press .Association.—Copyright.) (Received 2.30 p.m.) PEKING, September 19. Chang Tso-lin, telegraphing to Dr. Sun Vat Sen, states he is sending 180,000 troops to Peking by six routes. Chang considers this an opportune moment for striking the enemy a crushing blow. He says the enemy's seasoned troops have withdrawn northward from Yantse, so if the "southern troops move northward Wu Chang will be captured without difficulty. The latest news from Shanghai indicates that Che Kiang armies are undermined by bribery. Large transfers to the other side have taken place, and Che Kiang is on the verge of collapse.-— ; ("Sun.")

LOADED AT GENOA A SINISTER CARGO. (Received 2.30 p.m.) CAPETOWN, September 19. The Nordmark loaded a full cargo of German guns and ammunition at Genoa. These were covered with sand at an uninhabited island off the Gold Coast. It is unknown where the vessel coaled. She was probably forced into Durban. (A. and N.Z. Cable.) EARLY END ANTICIPATED. GOVERNOR FLEES FROM f HANG-HOW. PEKING, September 19. Hie Civil Governor has fled from Hangchow, leaving the Chief of Police in charge. General Sun Chuan-fang, who is a supporter of Wu Pei-fu's interests, is inarching on the city, which is expected to be captured in a day or two. Latest reports state that the final collapse of the rebellious Chekiang forces appears an early probability. The "North China Daily News" says that the Hangchow coup d'etat, which has forced Lv Yung-hsiang to leave his capital for Shanghai, was organised by the Governor of Haiachao. He is known to toe unfriendly to Liv Heavy fighting commenced at Liuho after midnight. Largo numbers of wounded are being brought into the Chinese Ho.pital.— (Reuter.) UNLOADED AT DURBAN. CAPETOWN, September 19The discharging of the German ship Nordmark, which was found to have munitions aboard, supposedly for China, has commenced at Durban. Thousands of rifles and cases of ammunition have been landed. All are of German manufacture. -' The South African gunboat, Protea, is berthed astern of the Nordmark, watching the operations. It is rumoured that the Nordmark was shadowed during her voyage to Durban—(A. and N.Z. Cable). The increasing smuggling of arms into China is very disturbing to white residents. It is due to this traffic that armed robbers in Hongkong sometimes shoot; people into whose houses and shops they break. There is no more merciless criminal than the.Chinaman, i He shoots on sight, and the average citizen, unarmed, is usually helpless. Proof is abundantly established that white men are making money in this nefarious traffic, possibly at the expense of the lives of some of their own countrymen. When the s.s. Victoria arrived at Hongkong from Australia on her last trip the water police and a party of searchers discovered under the water tanks right at the bottom of the ship nine long Lee-Enfield rifles, 1000 rounds of mark 7 and 33,950 rounds of automatic pistol ammunition.