MAJOR BATTLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 120, 23 May 1928, Page 7

MAJOR BATTLE.

ACTION IN CHINA.

fighting Will Engage 420,000 Troops. CHANG'S TERMS TO JAPAN. (United Sen-ice.) (Received 11.30 a.m.) TOKYO, May 22. Negotiations between Chang Tso]in and the Japanese Legation at Peking for Chang's orderly withdrawal into Manchuria appear to have broken down. The Foreign Office here states Chang's agent approached the Minister, Mr. Yoshizawa at Peking on Tuesday night with a proposal that the Northerners would immediately withdraw into Manchuria provided Japan would slop the Nationalist advance on Peking and guarantee that the Peking-Tientsin area would not be allowed to fall under the Nationalist control.

Mr. Yoshizawa refused, declaring that guch a step would be a violation of neutrality. Chang's desire, apparently, is for a sort of buffer State for the Peking-Tientsin area, which would be between the Nationalist domain and Manchuria.

The War Office advices substantiate this analysis, declaring that a major battle is already developing between the Southern and Northern forces with preliminary fighting now under way between the Shansi Army, which is part of the Southern attacking force, and the Northern troops.

The War Office states that about 200,000 Northern forces are opposing 220,000 attacking Southerners along a line from the Nankw Pass around Peking, through Paotingfu and Tangchow, which is about 60 miles southward of Tientsin.

AMERICANS IN CHINA. Complete Withdrawal From North Planned. EXECUTION FOR CRIMES ASKED (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received 11 a.m.) WASHINGTON, May 22. It is authoritatively stated that the Government has decided upon the evacuation of all Americans from North China in the case of extreme emergency in the increasingly menacing military situation. Plans are already completed and provide for the withdrawal, not only cf civilians, but of American armed forces also. The first step would be to remove the legation and all civilians to Tientsin, followed by the withdrawal of the American troops to that city. The State Department announced to-day that it had sent a Note to the Chinese Nationalist Foreign Minister, Hwangfu, demanding that the murderers of the American missionary, Dr. Walter Seymour, be arrested and executed. The Note was delivered to the Nationalist Bureau at Shanghai for transmission to Hwangfu. It also demands,' the arrest and punishment of the officers responsible for looting the American mission. BRITISH TROOPS. STILL IN READINESS. (British Oflicial Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.) RUGBY, May 22. When making a statement in the House of Commons regarding the situation in China Mr. G. T. Locker-Lamp-son, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said that no great progress had been made by the Southern forces in their advance on Peking and Tientsin, and the latest reports showed that the Northern forces were ofienng resistance south of Paotingfu.

He added that recently a battalion, lees two companies, of the Shanghai Defence Force, had been dispatched from Shanghai to Weihaiwei, where for sonic time past there had been, one company. This movement had been undertaken primarily for training purposes, and in order to give the troops the benefit of a more congenial climate. They would be available for tha defence of British lives and property at Tientsin, if necessary, as they were only .about a day away.

JAPS RETALIATE. REPLY to boycott. (United Service.) (Received 11.30 a.m.) SHANGHAI, May 22. Japanese merchants having decided on retaliation to the Chinese boycott yesterday decided to refrain from purchasing Chinese export goods until the boycott was lifted.