"UNTO DEATH."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 308, 30 December 1933, Page 9

"UNTO DEATH."

PRISONER'S FAST. Convicted Communist Agitator In China. WIFE MAY FOLLOW SUIT. (.United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 12 noon.) SHANGHAI, December 29. Following Gandhi's example, Paul Noulens, a Communist who is serving a life sentence with his wife, has commenced a fast "unto death." He will continue unless both of them are unconditionally released. Despite a plea by the prison authorities, Mrs. Noulens refuses to intervene, declaring that she is prepared to join her husband's death-fast unless both are freed. The couple were arrested in 1931 in sensational circumstances, on a charge ' of conspiring to overthrow the Nanking Government. Documents in their possession substantiated the fact that i both were extensively engaged in the spread of Communism in China and -were actually directing the movement from Shanghai, distributing vast sums of money. They were sentenced to death, and the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

"IS IT WAR? ,, Chinese General Returning to Nanking. ANIMUS AGAINST JAPAN. (Received ll.fcO a.m.) COLOMBO, December 29. The former ruler of Manchuria, Marshal Chang Hsu<?h-liang, is hurrying to China from here. When asked, "Is it war?" he replied that he could not 'say, but the Nanking Government had called him. He gave it as his opinion that the treaty between China and Japan was a mere truce, and would not last. He thought Japan would be unable to keep her gains in Manchuria and hoped that China was not deceived by Japan's appeal for Asiatic solidarity, which he characterised as insincere.