CONDITIONS IN CHINA

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 183, 29 April 1924, Page 10

CONDITIONS IN CHINA

HOSTILITY TO FOREIGNERS INLAND MISSION CLOSES SEVERAL STATIONS (BY TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Copybight. (Rec. April 28, 8.5 pm.) Pekin, April 28. A meeting convened under the auspices of certain Chinese leaders to discuss the arrest of Chinese, soldiers for assaulting foreigners within the legation quarter demanded the recall of the British Minister. The conditions in China continue to be extremely bad. The Treasury is empty, the revenues are insignificant, and until the Boxer Indemnity dispute with France has been settled is little prospect of improvement. The British. French and Japanese ambassadors are conferring on the subject of the defaulted and unsecured debts, which along with the hostility shown to foreigners, especially in the interior provinces, where foreign firms are removing their concessions, may cause diplomats to ask for intervention. The China Inland Mission has closed several stations, owing to soldiers’ and bandits’ raids. A daring outrage occurred at Chunking, two hundred yards from the British and American gunboat moorings, when six Standard Oil Company’s iunks were attacked and robbed. Consulate messengers have been insulted on several occasions. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. FREQUENT PIRACIES BRITISH SOLDIERS TO GUARD STEAMERS Hong Kong, April 26. Steamship piracies have become so frequent between the ports of Canton and .Hong Kong that the British authorities at Hong Kong have decided to place British soldiers as guards upon steamers making night runs. The}’ will be armed with rifles and Lewis guns. Indian guards have, so far, sufficed. Vessels moreover will travel in a convoy system to assure greater safety. The pirates have become so daring recently that they stole a launch used as a harbour ferry between Hong Kong and Kowloon, kidnapping passengers, who were later released with the exception of the coxswain’s son. whom, it is understood, they are still holding. In the event of the death of officers of ships on the Hong Kong register of shipping, owing to piratical attacks, the Government will pay to their dependent survivors the equivalent of two vears’ pay; and in the event of disablement an allowance not exceeding one year’s pay.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.