EXTREMELY GRAVE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 91, 14 October 1931, Page 9

EXTREMELY GRAVE

FEARFUL EXPECTANCY

FEELING IN CHINA

SHANGHAI, 13th October. An economic blockade of the most important Chinese ports by Japan is foreshadowed. Sis cruisers, eight destroyers, and fourteen gunboats are already in Chinese waters, and manymore are reported to bo prepared to leave Japan at a moment's notice. The political atmosphere from Canton to Manchuria, especially at Shanghai and Nanking, is super-charged with fearful expectancy. The situation is regarded as being extremely grave. Wealthy Chinese are quitting Nanking, which, it is rumoured, the Japanese intend occupying. It is reported that the Nanking official archives are already emptied of their important documents.

STEPS IN SELF-DEFENCE,

In Shanghai steps are being quietly, and earnestly taken in preparation for the defence of Chinese territory. A remarkable feature of the situation is the. unity displayed among former enemy, militarists who are pledging support to the Nanking Government, should the League of Nations fail China and the country be forced into war. Befugees throughout to-day streamed from Nanking to Shanghai, as rumours of imminent hostilities flooded the capLtal. Thousands of Chinese residents left their homes here, seeking shelter in the foreign Settlement, and taking only their most valuable belongings.^ The word war is on everybody's lips. Even the Japanese residents outside tha settlement are moved inward, responding to an official Japanese warning.

PRESIDENT'S DECLARATION.

President Chiang Kai-shek's declaration yesterday that he was prepared to bankrupt China for fifty years in orde*; to fight Japan in the event of th« League of Nations failing to secure peace, coupled with Japan's announcement of its determination not to permit the League to interfere, is not regarded locally as "hot air." All signs point to a Japanese determination to continue her militaristic programme. The consensus of opinion here is that Japan will ignore whatever decision the League reaches, maintaining the attitude that direct negotiations are the only possible course. Japan has received China's reply, m which China refutes the charges of fostering anti-Japancso movements, blaming Japan for all Sino-Japanese difficulties. A British aircraft-carrier has postponed her departure from Shanghai.