FOREIGN EVACUATION

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 17, 21 January 1927, Page 9

FOREIGN EVACUATION

SHANGHAI A STRONGHOLD

MISSIONARY WORK DOOMED

(United Press Association. —Copyright.) (Received 21st January, 10 a.m.)

SHANGHAI, 20 th January.

The interior of China is fast being drained of foreign merchants and missionaries, who are leaving under instructions of the British authorities, and proceeding to Hankow or the nearest river port, where they are picked up by British gunboats and transferred to Shanghai, which is sheltering thousands of foreign refugees from all partj of

China.

Britain's future moves are clouded with uncertainty. Messages are daily being received that additional naval reinforcements are proceeding to China. British warships of the smaller class continue to proceed to Hankow, where the Secretary of the British Legation to Pekin, Sir Edward O'Malley, continues to negotiate with the Chinese. "

DETERMINED RESISTANCE,

Extraordinary precautions arc being taken against an uprising of the mob in the International and French Settlements. Barb-wire barricades are being erected at all important intersections, with even twelve-foot iron gates at the most important places. The erection of accommodation for a large force of foreign troops from overseas is proceeding at strategic points, particularly at the municipal utility plants. An hotel in the heart of the settlement is being fortified in preparation for receiving women and children in ease of necessity. Everything points to a determined resistance by the Shanghai authorities to any attempt at a repetition of the Hankow incidents.

Industrial strikes, always the forerunner- of rios, arc already here. The trams are paralysed and the electricity service threatened.

GREATEST BLOW IN HISTOEY,

Missionary work in China is henceforth doomed. Missionary protests notwithstanding, it has suffered tho greatest blow in its history. AH savo a few die-hards are deserting their posts and heading for Shanghai. The Szechwan Province, regarded as the greatest field for missionary work, is being c cuated systematically of its 500 missionaries, of all faiths. Even the so-called "Christian General Feng Yu-Hsiang,' is hounding missionaries from the territory under his control.

A few missionaries in the interior are held by the Chinese as hostages against British reprisals, which are greatly feared by the Chinese as the result of the Hankow incident, which conservative Chinese consider overstepped the bounds of international friendship.