DEFENCE FORCE ADEQUATE

Evening Star, Issue 19520, 30 March 1927, Page 6

DEFENCE FORCE ADEQUATE

ITS VALUE EMPHASISED (British Official News.) Press Association—By Wireless —Copyright. RUGBY, March 29. (Received March 30, at 11 a.m.) The situation in Shanghai remains unchanged, and the defensive measures taken by Britain and the other Powers, with interests in 'the Settlement, are proving adequate to maintain order. A message received from the Shanghai Stock Exchange was posted in the London Stock Exchange yesterday asking that grateful thanks be tendered to the British Government for sending troops, “ which alone prevented inevitable looting, incendiarism, and massacre in the Settlements by armed Communists and leaderless Chinese troops. Emphatically deprecate any negotiations until order is restored.”

‘ The Times ’ emphasises that if the defence force had not been on guard at the critical moment the whole range of foreign interests in China would by this time have had no standing at all, and isolated murder would have become a wholesale massacre. Tho immediate necessity is sheer physical defence. When genuine Chinese organism emerges once more in organised form then will be tho time to resume serious political negotiations. Several British nationals have reached Shanghai from Nanking, and have made sworn statements regarding their experiences, which are J)eing transmitted to the authorities.