WAR IN CHINA

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 19 October 1926, Page 5

WAR IN CHINA

MARCH ON SHANGHAI.

RED PLOT FRUSTRATED. FOREIGNERS MAKING READY. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.. Received 11 a.m. to-day. PEKIN, Oct. IS. Chinese political circles regard the Chekiang revolt as the crisis of the ~V present war, and no doubt engineered F by the Reds to embarrass General Sun Chuan Fang, the commander of the anti-Red forces, and to divert his attention from the Kiukiang front. It was originally planned to stage an uprising in the Shanghai district, disguised as a student protest concerning the Wanhsien affair, in order to divert the attention of troops stationed at Shanghai. Simultaneously the Chekiangites would descend suddenly upon Shanghai from the west in a surprise attack, but the plot was discovered by the local authorities, .who rushed troops westward to meet the oncoming rebels, who halted their advance when a dozen miles of Shanghai. Railway services are totally interrupted, and martial law has been declared in the Chinese territory. The police at the international settlement and foreign volunteers are preparing for emergencies- Refugees from the environs are pouring into the foreign concessions for protection. The majority have been forced to walk many miles from the afflicted districts, as the trains have been stopped. 'General Sun 'Chuan 'Fang is with-, drawing his forces from Nanking and transferring them to the Shanghai district, where the armies are concentrating to fight for the possession of Shanghai. General Sun Chuan Fang, who has lately been occupying as his headquarters a river boat at Kiukiang, protected by Chinese gunboats, is reported to have been prevented from leaving for Nanking, bis military headquarters. by the gunboats demanding five million dollars first, which is the customary conduct of the Chinese navy, which has always see-sawed between the factions, joining whichever offered the biggeat bribe.