A SERIOUS TURN

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 22 January 1927, Page 5

A SERIOUS TURN

SITUATION AT HANKOW. UNCONFIRMED MESSAGE FOREIGNERS BEING EVACUATED BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. Received 10.55 a.m. to-day. PEKING, Jan. 21. A private foreign message from Hankow states that the situation there has developed seriously. One thousand British and American men are being evacuated. No official confirmation has been received up to the present. HANKOW' FEELS THE, PINCH. LONDON, Jan. 13. The Daily Mail’s Hankow correspondent states: The British business men’s refusal to accept the invitation of the Canton Foreign Minister, Mr. Eugene Chen, to re-open their establishments, pending the arrival of Mr O’Malley, the British Charge d’Affaires, from Peking to-morrow, is creating a .stringency'’in the native money market, which is threatening a crisis. It is a’jso delaying the Nationalist schemes for taxing the wealthy Chinese, whose money is in the British vaults. The business men .spent a quiet Sunday in the Petroleum Company’s building, sleeping on the floor, each with a single blanket. They were given a few I" hours’ leave, in batches, and .strolled ■\ unmolested through the streets of the concession. They noticed that the Nationalists had removed the offensive anti-British posters. In a message to the Daily Mai l , Mr Eugene Chen said: “British merchants at Hankow ref us? to resume business, despite the restoration of .safe conditions. This may permanently injure British trade and property. “The deliberate suspension of business may be part of an undisclosed plan, but it is altogether unnecessary voluntarily - to coop themselves in the Asiatic Company’s buiding. The circumstances are" suggestive of a beleaguered garrison. Some sleep on the floors, although warm beds are available.” WILY SOVIET. LONDON, Jan. 13. Events at Hankow have .stimulated the Soviet politician® to extraordinary activity, says the Riga correspondent of the Timeis. They have ordered their representatives in European capitals to pacify non-British nations. glossing over the fact that all nations’ rights in China are endangered. Soviet newspapers urge diplomats to warn the Powers of the necessity of restrainin' 1- Britain from defending her rights, otherwise Chinese distinction of British and foreigners would cease, and all would become the victims of unbridled Chinese fury. JACOB BORODTN. HANKOW', Jan. 13. The feature of the recent festivities and mass meetings in honour of the removal of the Cantonese capital from Canton to Wuchang, was the emergence for the first time into the glare ol publicity, of Jacob Borodin, u This sinister personality is the driving force of the Cantonese Communist movement, as well as the dominating influence behind the Chinese side of the conversations between Mr. Allies Lampson and Air. Eugene Chen, the Cantonese Foreign Minister. Borodin was the star orator at a five-hours’ open air mobilisation of the masses of the native city.