BRITISH FORCE FOR CHINA

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1927, Page 9

BRITISH FORCE FOR CHINA

ALLEGED OBSTACLE TO PEACE

COMPROMISE FINDS FAVOUR

TROOPS TO WAIT AT HONG KONG

(United Press Association.—Copyright.)

A solution—which is reported to be finding favour on all sides—to the difficulty which the Chinese Nationalists present as an obstacle to a peaceful settlement of their trouble with Britain, is suggested* to-day. This is that the Shanghai Defence Force, to which Chen has objected, . should not go further than Hong Kong until an emergency arises.

(Received 4th February, 10 a.m.)

SHANGHAI, 3rd February.

Hankow is outwardly calm despite the abrupt termination of negotiations, on which all hopes of an amicable settlement had been pinned for three weeks. Chen's declaration is regarded as a confession of his failure to win over the extremists to a moderate view.

While it is recognised that Britain is scarcely likely to withdraw from the position taken up in regard to the dispatch of troops, a possible solution of the present deadlock is seen in a suggestion which is finding favour in many quarters, namely, that the ■ expedition should not proceed further than Hong Kong. This, it is pointed out, would save faces, all round, without endangering the Birtish position at Shanghai, and at the same time give Chen and the moderates a chance to make a final bid for reasonableness on the part of the hitherto irreconcilables in the Kuomingtang.

It is also felt that Britain's case would be made clearer and stro-iger if the text of the draft agreement were published.