CHINESE TROOPS MASSING

Horowhenua Chronicle, 17 July 1937, Page 5

CHINESE TROOPS MASSING

THIRTY DIVISIONS INVOLVED. JAP CONCESSION REPORTED SURROUNDED. (By Telegraph-Press Assn.-Copyright) (Received, This Day, 1.15 ajn.) TOKIO, July 16. Thirty divisions of Chinese troops are massing on the Shansi border along the Haichow-Sianfu railway. A Tientsin message states unofficial Chinese quarters report, without confirmation, after allnight negotiations, an agreement for the withdrawal of the 37th division of the 29th Chinese Army from Peiping to Paotin. Three thousand Chinese troops are reported to have surrounded ' the Japanese concession in Hankow.

r ORIGINAL INCIDENT. 1 DOES NOT JUSTIFY WAR. Received Friday, 11 p.m. LONDON, July 16. England anfl America, acting independently, are both using their influence to prevent the North-China trouble degenerating into a Sino-Japanese war, says the Morning Post’s diplomatic correspondent. The British Government’s view is that the original incident is not sufficient to justify war, and it has so informed the Japanese Government. It has also urged that both sides should not allow the affair to become magnified by considerations of prestige. There is ho. question of British mediation. It is understood that the United States Government made similar representations. The Shanghai correspondent of the Times says the crux of the position from fihe Chinese viewpoint is whether Nan king will allow pro-Japanese officials in the north to make a damaging settle ment. and whether the Chinese army, which for a long time, has been trained for an emergency like the present, will be used in an attempt to check the intended aggression. There is a large patriotic element favouring resistance at any cost. If China is sufficiently accommodating, a local settlement can doubtless be

•.easily arranged, but the whole tone of the reports from Tokio is that Japan believes China needs a lesson from the powerful Japanese Army, and that, incidental to the lesson, Japan will be .able to get whatever she wants in North ‘China. JAPANESE SECOND LINE OF DEFENCE Received Friday, 8.30 p.ra. TOKIO, July IG. General Induye, president of the Jap anese Association, with 3,000,000 members, called on them to be in readiness to form a second line of defence, which is interpreted as a preliminary to their m«bilisktion.