PROMPT ACTION

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 92, 16 March 1927, Page 9

PROMPT ACTION

BY AMERICAN DESTROYER. REPLY TO CHINESE SOLDIERS. MACHINE GUNS USED. ■ (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received March 16, 9.50 a.m. PEKIN, March 15. Chinese soldiers interfered with the Standard Oil Coy’s launch near Wuhu. The United States destroyer Prebles intervened and put an armed party aboard. -- Later she was escorting the launch when soldiers fired on the vessels. The Prebles’s bridge was hit twice but there were no casualties. The Prebles replied with machine guns.—A. and N.Z. cable.

DRAGGED THROUGH STREETS. CHINESE COMMISSIONER OF TAXES. Received March 16, 9.50 a.m. PEKIN, March 15. The acting Chinese Commissioner of Customs at Wuhu was dragged through the streets on two successive days with a placard reading: “He accepted a bribe from the Jardine Matheson Coy. to release a steamer whereon were British refugees.” The mob beat and stoned him.— Sydney Sun cable. REVERSION OF CONCESSION. BRITAIN’S ACTION CRITICISED. SHANGHAI, March 15. The British concession seized and held by the Cantonese on January 4, to-day officially reverted to the Chinese, in accordance with the ChenO’Malley agreement. Commenting thereon, the North China Daily News, the official British organ, declared: “It must be said that Britons .at Hankow and elsewhere look to the-future with deep misgiving, and cannot rid themselves of the thought that the concession ought never to have been lost. A grave blunder has been committed, and Britons’ interests sacrificed to a false political expediency. The only explanation of this strange, sad story is that the British Government never meant to impose any conditions, or require guarantees, for the welfare of its nationals, but made up its mind to hand over the concession as a free gift, and by so doing sought to appeal to the best sense of the Chinese by a supreme act of friendship.” The paper describes this act as a piece of irrational quixotry, which, instead of mollifying the extremists, let alone earning their gratitude, has been followed by fresh excesses against the British. “The only hopeful sign,” it says, “is that the Chinese are beginning to understand the madness of the course to which the Labour unions unjler the dominance of Moscow agents, are consigning them. Sooner or later they must revolt against the tyranny of Labour unions.”

Pishou Chen, commander of the Shangtung troops in the Shanghai area, called on General Duncan, comm,under of the British forces, and explained in the course of a friendly conversation that the attempt on the part of his troops to enter tne settlement on March 12 was due to an unfortunate misunderstanding. He was willing and able to maintain order in the Shanghai area. A conference of the Central Executive of the Kuomintang passed a resolution abolishing the position of chairman, the political council standing committee, and the military council, each of which Chiang Kai-shek formerly held, and instituting instead a board of chairmen, making the position of generalissimo subject to the authority of the military council. It remains to be seen whether the changes are merely superficial or really radical and intended to curb Chiang’s power. The conference also resolved to create five new Ministrys—Labour, Education, Agriculture, Industries and Health. The 1 Ministers will be chosen by the political council.—A. and N.Z. cable.

MILITARY SITUATION VAGUE. WUHU NOW QUIET. LONDON, March 14. Official telegrams show that the military situation in China is vague. The Shanghai front is reported to be quiet. There are 'indications that the next fighting will be in defence of Nanking and the protection of railway communication. There is no confirmation of the report that a Chinese naval force off Blockhouse Island, at Shanghai, has gone over to the Cantonese. The Nationalists at Shanghai have issued a statement that they intend to recover the settlement by propaganda and boycott, but will not use force either by riots or otherwise. The situation at Wuhu is now quiet. Business has been resumed, but there are no British women and children. The Government has decided to station a British Legation officer at Hankow in order to continue diplomatic relations with the Cantonese.

The Daily Telegraph’s diplomatic correspondent says that negotiations relating to the eventual retrocession of Weihaiwei to China have been continued for some time between Sir Miles Lampson and Dr Wellington Ivoo.—A. and N.Z. cable. MR CHEN IN CHINA. THE MAN OF THE MOMENT. The man of the moment in China is certainly Mr Eugene Chen, a man of undoubted ability and of infinitely patient ambition (writes Mr T. Beddard Jackson in the London Daily Mail.) Mr Chen is supposed to have been educated in Jamaica and at Oxford. But, as a fact, he was never in Jamaica, or at Oxford beyond a possible short visit. He was born at Trinidad, in British West Indies, of pure Chinese descent. When I first met him some twenty odd years ago, he was a British bom solicitor of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago, where, as quite a young man, he had already a considerable practice. He was educated at the Queen’s Royal College, Port of Spain. Mr Chen’s perfect English is thus accounted for. At the time I Knew him in the West Indies he spoke and wrote French equally well; his worry was that he was then not at all at home in Chinese. For some time I was in constant association daily and nightly with Mr Chen, then known as Eugene Bernard Acham. \ I formed the impression that he would go very far indeed, given the opportunity; but his ambitions in those days were confined to building up a competency with a view to qualifying as a barrister-at-law, with eventual unofficial ‘ membership of our Legislative -Council of the Colony, which he thought (with truth) was in great need of new members. His interests outside were in English

and French politics and literature, in which he was extremely well read. He had probably the best library in the West Indies. , Mr Eugene Chen married a charming coloured Creole of Port of Spain, by whom he has two daughters and a sou. They have divided their time between Port of Spain and London, taking the name of Acham-Chen. The 'fire died not very long ago in Port of Spam, where the only son, Mr Percy AchamChen, is practising at the Trinidad Bar, and is a very clever Rugby halfback. , , The daughters are accomplished dancers —one is a genius—and have appeared on the London stage, but now confine their efforts to appearances for Port of Spain charities.