CROWDS RULE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1927, Page 7

CROWDS RULE.

LOOTING PREVALENT. Serious Outbreak of Rioting at Wuhu. CHINA FACTIONS TIGHT. (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON - , March 10. Official dispatches received in London report mob rioting in Wuhu. A mob looted the Custom houses and the situation is so serious that British and other European women and children have taken refuge aboard a British steamer. H.M.S. Wolseley is also standing by in case of further trouble. Local Chinese authorities have sent troops to check the looting and rioting, but these have not- made a serious attempt to control the crowds. Well-informed people here attribute the outbreak to a mixture of local feeling for and against the Cantonese cause following on local and provincial Governors' recent retrocession from the Northerners to tb3 Cantonese. EUROPEANS INTERNED. SITUATION UNDER CONTROL. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.) RUGBY, March 10. A serious riot occurred on Wednesday evening at Wuhu, a town on the Yangtse, 180 miles west of Shanghai, with a population of 236,000. The mob looted the native Customs House and the Customs Club, and some Europeans were locked in the Customs House. European women and children were withdrawn to the British steamer Shasi. A small detachment of troops vas sent by Chen Tao-yuan, military Governor of Anwhei Province, who was re* cently reported to have gone over to the Cantonese Nationalists, but this force was apparently inadequate to restore order. Men from the British destroyer Wolseley, with assistance from the United States destroyer Preble, helped to remove the women and children to the steamer Shasi. The British cruiser Emerald was sent to Wuhu from Nanking to protect British life and property. Latest Press reports state that the Chinese authorities eventually restored order, and that Cheng Chien, the commander of one of the Southern armies, has arrived and taken charge of the situation. It is not clear how the trouble arose, although some reports state that the Chinese attempted to commandeer the Indo-China steamer Kutwo for a troop transport, and were firmly but tactfully prevented by a British naval party. RUSSIANS SHOT. Mme. Borodin Still Held Prisoner. SIGNIFICANT EPISODE. (Received 11 a.m.) SHANGHAI, March 10. A report is current to the effect that on the orders of the Northern Chinese military authorities the three Soviet diplomatic couriers who were arrested With Madame Borodin were shot. They were carrying propaganda, munitions and military information to the Nationalist headquarters at Hankow. Madame Borodin is still a prisoner. The entire episode is construed as being of very grave international significance. It is declared by the Soviet Embassy at Peking to be an act of piracy and murder. TOO GILBERTIAN. APPEAL FOR MME. BORODIN. LONDON, March 10. The Foreign Office has not received and does not expect to receive confirmation of the rumour sent by several Press correspondents in the Far East that appeals have been made by British authorities in China to intervene on beAalf of Mme. Borodin. Official circles' comment is that "such an appeal is too delightfully Gilbertian to be true." TO FEED TROOPS. OUR CHEESE TOR SHANGHAI. LONDON, March 5. The War Office is buying Australian wozen beef and New Zealand cheese through London trade channels, for the woops at Shanghai.

Sp«^i V ,.« SI i" < ' ia .L? r . rnnßen,ent > Reuter's World Sl2ft^M dU 0D t0 P tber s P ecla l sources rf thf r natlon '. ta used >a «»e compilation «the oversea Intelligence published to this ,2% "* «» **»*» thereto £ AuSrilll Zealand are reserved-> ~ um * mu *

DIPLOMATS BUSY. Negotiations in Several Quarters. MINISTER REPORTS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 10. Ini reply to a question in the House of Commons, the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr. G. T. Locker-Lamp-son said Mr Owen O'Malley, Counsellor to the British Legation at Peking, had lelt Hankow on his return to Peking to report;. He had left the Chinese Secretary of the Legation, Mr. H. Teichman, to attend to the execution of the details of the agreements about the Hankow and Kiukiang concessions, and to maintain contact with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nationalist Government, Mr. Eugene Chen.

n/P 10 ? ntish Ministe- at Peking, Sir Miles lampson, had opened conversations with the Peking Government regarding proposals communicated by him to the Peking Premier, Dr. Wellington Koo, on January 27T The discussions had not yet advanced beyond questions of general principle. AT TIENTSIN. THORNY PROBLEM. - LONDON, March 10. The Foreign Office announces the appointment of a commission, consisting of representatives of the British and Peking Governments, to consider a modification of the present system of administering the British concession at Tientsin, 70 miles south-east of Peking. This concession is different to all the others in China. It is wedged between the French concession and the former German concession. The main thoroughfare is occupied by Chinese, Austrian, Russian, French and German stores. The American Consular buildings are situated in the centre of the concession. The waterfront is used by other concessionaires, but it is entirely Britishowned. Owing to the many interests involved, the task of the commission will be very complicated and difficult. In official circles it is stated that the appointment of the commission is another step like the Hankow agreement toward liberalising the conditions of Britain's concessions and settlements in China on the basis of Britain's offer to the whole of China, or to any Government in the country. A sequel to the capture of the British concession at Hankow by the Cantonese was a demand by the Pekingese Government for the restoration of the foreign concessions at Tientsin, the port of Peking. The aggregate value of these is nearly double that of the Hankow concessions. The argument used was that as the North was acting fairly to the foreigners by trying to suppress Bolshevism and antiforeign agitation, it would be a graceful thing to hand over the Tientsin concessions, which the Peking Government was too considerate to take by force. The argument was clinched by the point that the North cannot afford to lag behind the South in a patriotic effort to rehabilitate China at the expense of the foreigner.