“WAIT AND SEE”

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 30 December 1926, Page 5

“WAIT AND SEE”

FRENCH CHINESE POLICY. THE BRITISH DECLARATION REGARDED AS UNNECESSARY. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. PARIS, Dec. 28. Cabinet reviewed the situation in China and approved M. Briand’s recommendation not to depart from the policy of ‘‘wait and see.” A semiofficial note was issued, stating that Britain’s proposed declaration was regarded as unnecessary, that the Government believes that it is inadvisable to discuss foreigners’ rights over the heads of the opposing Chinese Governments and prefers to let the crisis pass till it is possible to negotiate with a really representative authority. To recognise the Canton Government as independent from Peking would be to sanction the secession of that State and disturb both North and South China, which were each striving for control. PRESS GANGS BUSY. ATTACKS ON PIRATES. FOREIGN AID SOUGHT. PEKING, Dec. 29. The military impressment of coolies for transport purposes in connection with the proposed northern to drive the Reds from the Yangtsze Valley met with disastrous results. Coolies were pressed from the streets, herded like cattle, and entrained without being fed. One trainload of three hundred were all found frozen to death on arrival at the front, while similar incidents are reported elsewhere. The press gangs are busy in Shanghai, permission being granted to the military governor to send squads into the foreign concessions to press idlers. This is causing Red agitators to curtail their activities, and interest in the warfare in Central China is temporarily diverted to the attempt to exterminate a notorious pirate stronghold in Bias Bay, following on the recent attack by pirates on the British steamer Sunning.

In all the piracies lately carried out vessels have been taken to Bias Bay, which is within' 100 miles of Hongkong, and there looted, the prisoners being transferred to the robbers’ fastnesses in the adjacent mountains.

The authorities in Canton made overtures for a combined attack, including British naval forces from Hongkong and bombing ’planes, upon the pirates’ stronghold. The Canton Government previously formed a military expedition to act in conjunction with the naval forces from Hongkong, but Cantonese guerillas attacked the military expedition and prevented it from attacking the pirates. The new expedition is being awaited with deep interest, in view of the fact that it is the first time foreign assistance has been sought to effectively deal with the pirate pest. . It is reported that the Kirin district is being terrorised by a band of 60 mounted women. The bandits are reputedly led by the divorced wife of a prosperous merchant .seeking to revenge her supposed wrongs. The band is well armed and - desperate. It is. roaming unchecked and robbing wealthy people. The provincial authorities are deaf to appeals for assistance and protection, fearing reprisals by the bandits.