BATTLE PREPARATIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 February 1932, Page 5

BATTLE PREPARATIONS

AWAITING JAP. ONSLAUGHT

ARMIES IN CLOSE TOUCH

[BY CABLE—PBESS ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.]

(Received February 17, Noon). SHANGHAI, February 16.

The Japanese are performing rehearsals preparatory to the attempt to capture Chapei. Three large fires were started at dusk in the Kiangwa area where the Japanese are taking positions. The Chinese are apparently preparing to meet, the offensive as heavy reinforcements arrived. A large concentration is taking place along a wide front. The Chinese lines are in some places barely half a mile from the Japanese but both sides are withholding fire. The rumour that Chiang Kai Shek is coming to Shanghai to assist the defences was strengthened to-day, when two thousand of his personal crack troops reached Chengju. Cessation of heavy firing around the settlement, with intensive military preparations by both sides, is causing the authorities more alarm than the actual Chapei fighting, since the pending hostilities will undoubtedly drive the Chinese towards the settlement boundaries.

APPEAL TO JAPAN.

[BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS-I

RUGBY, February 16.

Committee Twelve of the League Council to-day despatched a message to Japan regarding the situation at Shanghai. The text is not yet published, but Press telegrams state that the members of the Council, while recognising the difficulties with which Japan has been faced, recalls her responsibilities as one of the principal partners in the world organisation for the maintenance of peace, and appeals to her to show restraint. It is understood that the message also recalls the terms of Article Ten of the Covenant, in the sense related to the principle already affirmed by the American Government, whereby the acquisition by force of any territories would not be recognised.

SHOT AT CONSULATE. SHANGHAI, February 16. Margaret Nash, typiste at the British Consulate, was hanging up her coat, after lunch, when a mystery bullet crashed through the window, traversing her desk. Mr. Brennan, the Consul, was in the next room. Shanghai is nervously awaiting the offensive which the new Japanese troops are expected to launch on February 17. Five Chinese Army Corps, under Fengy Uhsiang, are concentrating in the Shanghai-Nanking railway area.

CANTONESE PATRIOTISM.

HONG KONG, February 15.

Canton citizens, fired with enthusiasm by the magnificent resistance offered by the Cantonese Nineteenth Army at Shanghai are arranging for practical aid in numerous forms. A scheme is afoot to raise a quarter of a million dollars for the purchase of aeroplanes. The students of the Sun Yat Sen University, Canton, besides remitting a large sum of money, have forwarded supplies of gas masks to Shanghai.

JAPS DENY CHARGES.

KOBE, February 16.

The Japanese Naval authorities deny many affirmations regarding their actions, made in Shanghai Consulai\Commission’s report to Geneva, including such statements as that 19 Japanese planes flew over Shanghai on January 31, and that Japanese marines interfered with municipal functions. The Japanese have issued an ultimatum stating that unless all Chinese forces are withdrawn 30 kilometres from Shanghai, the Japanese would attack in force.

SCARE-MONGERING!

LONDON, February 16.

The “Daily Herald’s” political correspondent refers to “Japanese talk about a lightning attack on Singapore, and says: “Australian opinion is becoming alarmed at the pretensions of Japan, and at the danger of an attack on Australia by the Japanese Navy m the event of a Far Eastern conflagration.” The “News-Chronicle” says: “Cabinet gravely views the Shanghai position.”

JOURNALIST’S ESTIMATE.

LONDON, February 16.

“If the League of Nations’ Council persists in merely sticking fig leaves over the nakedness of Japan’s aggression in China, it is certain that the Disarmament Conference will be a fiasco! What nation will disarm while the League’s helplessness to assure security is so convincingly displayed? Indeed, the League itself can scarcely survive such a spineless display.” Thus spoke Mr Henry Wickham Steed who is a leading authority on the League’s work, in the course of an interview.

He continued: “Britain and her Dominions should, immediately, inform the League Council that Japan, by her repeated violation of her pledges, has placed herself outside the pale of the international community of nations. If Australia, Canada and New Zealand thought that their interests- would be best served by a policy of “Laissez Faire,” because, momentarily, it might appear to be in their interests to let Japan get a strangle-hold on China’s vast resources, or because some commercial loss might have to be faced by stern action now, then in so thinking they were mistaken. A postponement now meant that the problem would again arise in a decade without united action on the Anglo-Saxon front. Things will drift till there is the danger of an American-Japan clash, which no part of the Empire could regard with impunity.” Mi' Wickham Steed recalled that Canada’s action, one decade ago, was the determining factor in ending the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The threat of trouble in Canada and in Australia, he said, was certainly not less now.