CHINA

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 9 April 1927, Page 5

CHINA

1 — ANTICOMMUNISM. CHECK TO CHANG-TSO-LIN. CIVILIANS CANNOT BEAR; ARMS. BY CABLK—PRESS ASSOCIATION—OOP if BIGHT. Received 11.10 a.m. to-day. SHANGHAI. April 8. Action against the Soviet in Peking, Tientsin, and Shanghai synchronises with the strengthening of important anti-Communist move bv Chiang-Kai-shek. The generalissimo ha;-: issued strict, orders that no civilian may possess arms in the streets. This is aimed at pickets, and the Communist civilian army. Several armed agitators near the west gate of native city, refusing to disarm, were shot dead by Southern troops. All vernacular printing offices have received notice prohibiting the publication of anything from the political bureau at Hankow, or any advertisement containing malicious propaganda, and threatening punishment for disobedience of the notice. Chiang-Kaishek is also making elaborate preparations, both military and politically, to fight the Communists in the Party. His present difficulty is that no rule of the Kuomintang bars Communists from membership, therefore. he cannot expel them without a new rule, which may only be parsed by the party convention. This ChiangKaishek intends to call at Nanking in the near future. Meanwhile, he is receiving solid support from all the middle class Chinese, who are daily carrying resolutions, and issuing manifestos urging the expulsion of the R eds from China. The banks are supplying all the funds Chiang-Kaishek needs. He is retriving additionally, a customs surtax amounting approximately to 1.000.000 tacts monthly. An important conference of leading southern generals was held at Shanghai. at which strong anti-Communist resolutions were passed. The only one published urged strong action. Others were not published because they stipulated specific measures in that direction.

JAPANESE ATTACHED

SPOR ADIC SNIPTNG

SHANGHAI, April 8

Simultaneously with the departure ol Chiang Kai.slick from Nanking, guerilla forces again became active. They sniped and wounded a Japanese' marine. Immediately a large force of Japanese marines took possession of the streets with orders to shoot anything seen moving. As sporadic sniping continued, the Japanee commander ordered the marines to advance after sweeping the streets with Lewis guns. The guerillas rallied, and a short pitched battle followed. Then the attackers escape in a maze of alleyways. Early next morning a second street battle occurred, but the Japanese marines drove off the attackers, who were Cantonese soldiers.

NOT TO BE EMBROILED

ENGLAND AND THE CIVIL WAR. TESTIMONIAL TO BRITISH. ACTION 11 LG BY, April 7. During the China debate in the House of (Commons last night Colonel J. C. Wedgwood (Labour) asked whether the policy of complete neutrality as between the North and South in China, which had been observed by the British forces in Shanghai, would be observed also as. between any rival parties among the Nationalist forces. To this Sir Austen Chamberlain replied: ‘‘His Majesty’s Government has no intention of being drawn into the Chinese civil war, whatever form it may assume.”.

Replying to a Conservative member's question' regarding the Chinese propaganda made by the Red International, and the action he proposed to_take, in view of the Note to the Russian Government, Sir Austen Chamberlain said appeals of the kinds referred to to ruled part of the ordinary programme of the Third International, and recent events in China had provided them with a fresh opportunity of endeavouring to mislead the opinion of the world by entirely false statements. Anti-foreign feeling in general, and anti-British feeling in particular, had undoubtedly been encouraged. and stimulated from Moscow. The British Government did nob think it expedient to take further action on the Note, or the Soviet’s reply at present. The Secretary for War stated in the House of Commons to-day that the destination of the fresh brigade ordered to China was Hong Kong. Mr. G. L. Locker-Lampson, Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, .said the question of the safety of .British subjects in Peking was one of Ahe main problems created by the existing conditions in China, wliicli bad been engaging the anxious attention of the Government. He declined to make any further statement as to what steps were being taken. The message of thanks transmitted to the British Government bv foreigners in Shanghai for the ‘‘prompt and adequate measures taken for the* defence of the international settlement’’ was signed by ,1000 people, representing over 320 nationalists. All the leading members of each colony were among the signatories, including Mr. Fossenden, the American chairman, and Mr Fanstan. a .Japanese member of the municipal council. The municipal councillors of the French concession were also among the .signatories. Commenting on the agreement of the powers concerned to present demands to the appropriate Chinese authorities relative to the Nanking outrages, the ‘‘Daily News” says: ‘‘Great Britain I anxious to avoid any action of a kind to suspend indefinitely the pursuance of its policy of conciliation m China, or to forfeit its future friendly relations with the Chinese people. It is impressed with the need ol’ convincing the .so-called extremists in the Nat* a list, party that further experiments in violence will lx* undertaken at grave risk.