CHINESE STARTLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1930, Page 9 (Supplement)

CHINESE STARTLED.

MOVE BY AMERICAN EDITOR, DEMANDS OUSTING OF HIGH . OFFICIAL. For the first time in China an Amerir can-owned newspaper, the " Shanghai Evening Post," is seeking to effect the ousting of a Chinese official, and. is using in its campaign many of the devices employed in similar campaigns in the United States. Colonel Yuan Liang, chief of _ the Bureau of Public Safety in the Chinese section of Shanghai, is. tne tai%et of the "Evening Post's" wrath, and the campaign for his ousting has begun when a picture of the colonel, two columns in width, appeared on the front page of the newspaper. Over the picture was the line, "Out With Him! " and all around the border were drawings of hands with index fingers pointing at the colonel. The "Evening Post's" quarrel with the official responsible for the administration of law and the preservation of order in China's largest seaport arose as an aftermath of a strike of printers. One workman, Cliang Chu-sen, head stereotyper, chose to stick to his job, but was mobbed by other strikers. ' The stereotyper was "arrested for safe-keeping," and locked in a cell for which the striker paid rent to the gaoler. jNone of the men who assaulted Chang Chu-sen was arrested. Thfen followed a series- of bribes which were paid to have manacles removed from Chang's wrists. No charge was ever filed against the | prisoner; he was simply kept locked up for four days and nights. ; , The publisher of the ''Post," Carl Crow, an American, went to Colonel Liang, accompanied by a Chinese attorney, but Colonel Liang frankly admitted that he did not dare to release his prisoner lest the strikers take personal vengeance upon him for' disobeying their orders to keep Chang locked up. The "Shanghai Evening Post" demands Colonel Yuan Liang's dismissal because of his " self-confessed cowardice in carrying out his duties," and points out that by hi?, flouting of justice he made out a strong case for those who oppose relinquishing. extra-territoriality and putting foreigners at, the mercy of Chinese officialdom. Nothing akin to this publicity campaign aimed at ousting a high official has ever been known in China before and has caused a sensation.