MANCHURIA

Evening Star, Issue 20958, 24 November 1931, Page 11

MANCHURIA

THE POSITION AT HARBIN JAPANESE ANXIETY Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SHANGHAI, November 23. General Honjo, tho Japanese field commander in Manchuria, informed tho Press to-day that ho was perturbed regarding the Harbin situation, and he vouchsafed the opinion that it would possibly be necessary to occupy Harbin in order to safeguard the lives and property of tho Japanese. Tho authorities in the International Settlement took tho first decisive stop against anti-Japanese pickets to-day, when several arrests were made. This step was a bombshell hurled into the movement to suppress the boycott activities. Tho police in the French concession during tho week-end found tho bodies of nine Chinese in a basement house. It, is believed that they were murdered by members of tho Chinese Communist Party in revenge for divulging information of Communist activities.' The victims were strangled. The Nanking Government is taking groat interest in the discovery. QUESTION IN COMMONS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 23. (Received November 24, at 11 a.m.) In. the absence of Sir John Simon, who returned to Paris on Saturday night to take part in further discussions by the Council of the League of Nations, the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Captain Eden) answered in tho House of Commons a question on tho Manchurian situation. He said his information was that since the occupation of Tsitsihar by the Japanese forces no further fighting had taken place. The League Council had sat in Paris for more than a week, using its best endeavours to find a basis for a solution of the problem.

CHINA'S FOREIGN MINISTER DR WELLINGTON KOO APPOINTED SHANGHAI, November 23. (Received November 24, at 9 a.in.) Nanking officially announces the appointment of Dr Wellington Koo as Foreign Minister in succession to Mr C. T. Wang, who resigned in September following a brutal attack by students for alleged mishandling of China’s foreign affairs. Dr Koo is regarded as tho country’s foremost diplomat. Questioned regarding the proposal that a neutral commission should proceed to Manchuria to investigate tho present dispute, Dr Koo stated that any suggestion without definite provisions for the early withdrawal of Japanese troops from Manchuria would not be accepted by China. [One of the most prominent of the younger generation of Chinese statesmen is Mr Vi Kuyuin Wellington Koo, who was his country’s ambassador to the Court of St. Janies at Loudon for several years from 1921. One of tho most popular figures in British diplomatic circles during the period of his residence in London, he was educated at Columbia University, whore he took degrees in philosophy, and was English secretary to President Yuan bki-Kai. During the days of the Great War he was Minister Plenipotentiary at Washington, taking over the duties of that onerous office in 1915, and while there ho attended the Peace Conference as tli3 representative of China. His charm of manner, his musical voice, and his cultivated English immediately attract those ivith whom ho conics in contact, and there is none of that inscrutability that is generally associated with the common idea of tho Chinese. Ho was only 25 when ho became councillor to the Chinese Foreign Office, while at 27 ho was Minister to Mexico, and at 29 to tho United States. In very truth he is Young China. He himself places the beginning of his career at the day ho married Miss Pao-yu Tong, daughter of Tong Shoayl, former Prime Minister of China. This was in 1913, and since then his promotion has been rapid. Ho has no illusions; life in tho Western capita] has taught him much. But ho believes ho knows his own country and the state of mind of tho world. He believes that public opinion will rehabilitate China, so he keeps a stiff upper lip, blinks not, and sits tight. He knows tho game. Wellington Koo is both politician and statesman, and by the aid of both he hopes to wring from the world an acknowledgment that China must frame her own destiny, for his young, shrewd life has taught him that where the road lies there a man should walk. Dr Koo visited the dominion some months ago.]