WAR IN CHINA

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 194, 18 May 1928, Page 9

WAR IN CHINA

NORTHERN ARMIES ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE

RETIRING TO MANCHURIA SOLE REMAINING REFUGE FROM SOUTHERNERS (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) Shanghai, May 16. The Northern military officials and civilians are steadily evacuating Tientsin and Peking, in expectation of the Southerners’ arrival. All reports point to the fact that Chang Tso-lln is quitting, and retiring to Manchuria, and will not attempt to hold the Northern capital. As a result, foreign military commanders have ordered the erection of barricades about the foreign concessions in Tientsin to prevent a. possible repetition of the Tsinau-fu incident. The Northern armies are on the verge of collapse. The, behaviour of the leaders is encouraging desertion, and thousands are pawning their uniforms and otherwise destroying evidence of service in the Northern armies. The majority of the officers are imitating Chang Tso-lin in dispatching their families and possessions to their sole remaining refuge from the Southerners —Manchuria. The astonishing feature of the situation is that the much-vaunted armies of the Northern dictator, Chang Tsolin, are retreating without firing a shot. The only shots the. Southerners have exchanged have been with the Japanese troops at Tsinau-fu. The rest has consisted of bloodless victories.

FOREIGN GARRISONS AT TIENTSIN

(United Service.)

Shanghai, May 16.

The foreign garrisons at Tientsin are speeding up the defence works, and expect to complete them to-mor-row. Motor-cycle and cavalry patrols are already operating in the outskirts. Japanese volunteers have been mobilised.

.The Northerners apparently intend to make a stand at Machang, 30 miles from Tientsin, though foreign observers, considering the demoralisation of the Northerners, do not anticipate a real effective holding of the position. QUESTION OF MEDIATION NO ACTION BY BRITAIN UNLESS INVITED BY BOTH SIDES (British Official Wireless.p „ Rugby, May 16. The question was asked to-day in the House of Commons whether, in view of the developments in the Far East, the Foreign Secretary would consider offering to the contending, parties in China the good services of this country in bringing the civil war to a close.

Mr. Godfrey Locker-Lampson, Foreign Under-Secretary, replied that,, while His Majesty’s ' Government was anxious to see the re-establishment of peace in China, any attempt at mediation would, particularly at the present juncture, be extremely delicate, and would, he feared, be misinterpreted. His Majesty’s Government felt, therefore, that it could not take any step of this nature unless definitely invited to do so by both sides.

Replying to a question in the House of Lords this evening, Lord Cushendun, the British representative on the Council of the League of Nations, said that Sir Austen Chamberlain, Foreign Secretary, had not allowed the state of affairs in China to go for so long without considering whether the League of Nations could take any part in bringing about peace. But there was no such thing as a Government in Chinn. Tlie Nanking Political Committee had addressed a {elegram to the SecretaryGeneral at Geneva, but the Political Committee was not a member of the League of Nations. At the present molocus standi on which it could support the application of the Nanking Poiitment the British Government had no ical Committee.