The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo. MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1928. ANOTHER CHINESE CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 95, 23 April 1928, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo.

MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1928. ANOTHER CHINESE CRISIS.

For the causa that lacks assistance, For the wrotig that needs resistance For the futwe in the distanoe, And the good, that we oan do.

Within th» past week dramatic and startling developments have been reported from the Far East. For months past the Northern armiea, controlled by Chang Tso-lin, and the Nationalist forces, directed by Chiang Kai-shek, have been facing each other on or near the Hwang-ho, the great "Yellow River" south of Shantung. Chang Tso-lin, having routed portion o»f the Shang-tung levies which are co-opera ing- with the Nationalists, seems to have attempted to outflank the Nationalist left wing. But fin so doing he exposed himself to a counter-stnoke from Feng Yu-hsiang, the "Christian" general, who struck a sudden blow from the west at the Northern right wing which threatened Chang Tso-lin's communications, and forced him into precipitate retreat.

The positiom of Chang Tso-lin's forces seems at present precarious in the extreme. It is reported that the Manehurian "war lord" will be compelled to throw the whole of his forces into the Airing line, in a desperate effort to save Peking. Even this expedient may not suffice, and it 3s quite conceivable that the Nationalists mjjy speedily realise the highest object of their* ambitions by entering the Imperial City. *In the meantime, the situation has been dangerously by the intervention of At Tsinan, the chief city of Shantung province, are a large number of Japanese residents and merchants. The Nationalist armies are advancing rapidly on Tsinan, and are already reported to be shelling and bombing the eity. The Japanese Government has therefore decided to dispatch 5000 troops to the war-zone, with the assurance that the object of the expedition is merely to ensure the safeEjy of Japan's "nationals," and that the troops will be withdrawn as soon as that object is sjacured.

Naturally, Japan has taken some pains to make it quite dear to the Chinese Government and to the European Powers that there is no ulterior motivei behind the expedition. Peking has been definitely informed that the dispatch of Japanese tmops is merely "an unavoidable measure of self-proteetion," and that it does not imply an unfriendly attitude toward Chinn or any desire to intervene in the conflict between North and South. This may be true for the momeaj, but in view of the disordered state of China; it is impossible to predict how far Japan's jx>licy may be modified by the course of ciroamstances later on. Meanwhile, the Peking Government, evidently alarmed at Chang Tso-lin's defeat, seems to be changing its tone, and thongh in the first place it protested against the dispatch of Japanese troops, it has now decided to propitiate the Japanese Government, and latest reports represent Peking as "suddenly becoming most friendly to Japan."