SERIOUS NEWS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 10260, 2 December 1926, Page 5

SERIOUS NEWS

POSITION IN CHINA BRITISH CONSIDERS POSITION. AMERICAN GUNBOATS TO JOLv INTERNATIONAL FLEET. tUnited Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received December 1, 7.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 1. The news from Cliina is regarded as most serious. Cabinet last night considered the situation.

‘ It is understood Sir Austen Chamberlain will make a full statement in tho Commons to-day. NEW YORK, Nov. 00.

Two American destroyers, Pope and Truxton’, have been ordered to Hankow to protect foreign lives in the present crisis. The American naval force will co-operate with the British, .French and other vessels to protect the threatened nationals.—A. and N.Z.C.A.

HANKOW TROUBLE INTERNATIONAL WARSHIPS ASSEMBLE. CANTONESE AIM AT CONTROL OF CHINA. - BOLSHEVIK MENACE IN BACKGROUND. LONDON, Nov. 30. .The Daily News states that besides the China Squadron there are numerous international warships off Hankow. The fact remains that Hankow is 600 miles from the coast and leve.l water, and the Yangtsze will lull in the next three months. Seven hundred foreigners at Hankow are U mere handful among the population or 1,600,000. A high authority in China- says that mere rescue measures are insufficient. If Britain yields Hankow she must yield Shanghai and Tientsin, which would lead to disaster. Mr Gull, secretary of the British Chambers of Commerce, has arrived in London. He says a member ol the Cantonese Cabinet recently informed him that the Cantonese were aiming at control of the whole ol China, and were determined to deprive foreigners of the treaty rights obtained in 1842. They were antiBritish because they believed that Britain was the chief obstacle to .their aim. They would not abandon the Bolshevik connection until the other foreigners were ousted. The Bolshevik menace in China was very real, he said, and at present greatly under-rated. The present trouble in Hankow was foretold him by a Cabinet member. The Cantonese believed that a complete paralysis of trade and industry iu Hankow, and later in Shanghai, was thenmost effective weapon. Britain should continue to be ready to negotiate but ought simultaneously to make it plain that she is determined to defend her subjects’ rights.— A. and N.Z.C.A.