ARMS PACT?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 139, 15 June 1938, Page 7

ARMS PACT?

FRENCH AND CHINESE. Japanese Newspaper Alleges Agreement. PERIL OP INDOCHINA. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 12 noon.) LONDON, June 14. In spite of the French denial of a secret Franco-Chinese arms agreement, the "Kukomin Shimbun" declares that France, whose attitude is outrageous, is materiallv helping China. French airmen and military advisers, the paper alleges, are replacing the returning Americans and Germans. Arms and ammunition are arriving through French Indo-China which, when Marshal Chiang Kai-shek's administration moves to Yunanfu, will be involved in a maelstrom of Chino-Japanese hostilities. BRITISH WARSHIPS. Japanese Request on Yangtse Ignored. PROTECTION OF NATIONALS. (Received 2 p.m.) LOXDON, June 14.

British gunboats at Wuhu an<V Kiukiang have been ordered to remain there in spite of the Japanese request that foreign shipping should withdraw from the 200-mile streteh of the River between Wuhu and Flukow, says a message from Shanghai. The British view is that the presence of the gunboats on the river is even more necessary to protect British lives and property, now that the Japanese drive to Hankow has begun. lie .Japanese flagship Idumo was refloated to-day from the mud bank where she had grounded at Shanghai and left for Nanking to make a direct ri\er attack on Hankow. Three hundred Japanese aeroplanes have reached Wuhu. Floods in the 'iangtse threaten the line of the Japanese for many miles, necessitating a diversion of the attack on Hankow. Ihe Chinese at Hankow report that the floods are 30ft deep at the Paislian section of the Lungliai railway, and that" Japanese have been drowned and "000 entrapped near Kaifeng. where the water submerged 250 guns, 80 tanks and 100 armoured cars. A British official wireless message states that a number of questions were answered in the House of Commons on Far Eastern affairs. The Under Xecre tarv for Foreign Affairs, Mr. R. A. Butler, said the British Government had done its best to implement to the full its obligations to China under League resolut ions. In another answer, Mr. Chamberlain mentioned that reports received from Shanghai indicated that a better atniosphere now existed between Japanese and British authorities there. Three outstanding cases had l>een satisfactorily settled.