CHINESE FORCES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 303, 7 December 1931, Page 8

CHINESE FORCES

CONCENTRATE NEAR MUKDIN A JAPAESE REPORT. RAILWAY ZONE OVERRUN. Shanghai, Dec. 6. The Japanese military headquarters at Mukden state that nearly 40,000 Chinese troops are occupying the region between Chinchow ad Mukden. General Honjo, the Japanese commander, is noncommittal on the question of whether he contemplates an advance on Chinchow. It is reported that nearly 20,000 bandits and irregulars are overrunning the South Manchurian railway zone. These, with the Chinese concentration, endanger small Japanese forces. STUDENTS DEMONSTRATE TRAINS HELD UP. “Times” Cable. Peking, Dec. 5. Denied free transportation to Nanking to put the views of Manchuria before the Central Government, 2000 university students held up all road traffic here for twenty-four hours and are still preventing trains from entering and leaving the city. The demonstrators included girls. They camped on the tracks throughout the night despite the cold. The police hesitate to interfere, fearing reprisals. Trains from Tien-tsin are compelled to halt at a junction some miles from Peking. PROMINENT OFFICIALS RESIGN. LOCAL SENTIMENT. SHANGHAI, December 6 Nanking announces the resignation of Dr. Alfred Sze, the Paris delegate and Dr. Wellington Koo, the recently appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Sze’s cable complains tha‘ Chinese overseas delegates in Europe are pressing him not to attend further sessions and to commence negotiation,’ for China’s withdrawal from the League. General Chiang Kai-shek has asked Dr. Sze to continue, assuring him that the Government is firmly behind him. Dr. Koo pleads overwork. Local opinion is that the resignations are the result of local sentiment which opposes Government policy, especially in regard to the Chinchow neutral zone.