JAPAN IN CHINA

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 134, 7 May 1928, Page 7

JAPAN IN CHINA

ASSUMING AGGRESSIVE. SITUATION AT TSINAN-FU. REPRISALS ON NATIONALISTS. (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (United Service.) TOKIO, May 6. Received May 7, 10.10 a.m. An official message from Tsinan-fu announces that the Japanese there will drop the defensive and assume the role of aggressors from Monday. They will carry out reprisals against the Nationalists.

The third Nagoya Division, on seven transports, wil leave for Tsing-tao in a few days. Their despatch is only awaiting formal Cabinet sanction, which, is expected on Monday. The division includes an infantry brigade, a heavy artillery brigade, an anti-aircraft regiment and three air squadrons. With the sixth division now in Shantung there will be an organised army corps for the occupation of the province.

PEKIN’S PROTEST.

JAPAN BLAMED. SHANGHAI, May 5. The Pekin Government has lodged a protest with the Japanese. Legation blaming Japan for the Tsinan-fu incident. General Chiang Kai-shek, the Southern commander, has wirelessed to Shanghai the official Nationalist version, "declaring that Japanese troops raided the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, following a minor accident in which a Southern soldier was killed. General Chiang Kai-shek added that the Japanese seized Commissioner Tsai Kung-sze, bound him with a rope, cut off his ears and gouged out his eyes before murdering him. The Japanese then burned the bureau and embarked on an orgy of killing, in which Southern soldiers suffered. The Southerners replied in self-defence.

The vernacular press attributes the Japanese conduct to disappointment at failing to arrive at Tsinan-fu before the Southerners and prevent the capture of the city. It declares that Japanese are assisting the Shantungites and that they deliberately precipitated the Tsinan-fu incident in order to cheek the Nationalist advance. INFORMATION SCARCE.

Information relating to the situation at Tsinan-fu is scarce, communications (including wireless) being totally severed. The last news received stated that the Japanese troops wcie. exhausted, but had completed the cv,fence of the city, while civilians had concentrated ammunition and provisions, which, although diminishing, were sufficient for a few days. No information as to casualties among foreigners, other than Japanese, has been received. All are depending on the Japanese for safety. Reports from numerous Shantung cities show that anti-Japanese feeling is growing. Official declarations by the Nationalist. Government are not improving the situation, but rather tending to aggravate it. ‘ in view of the possibility of Manchuria and Mongolia being turned into theatres of war, it is reported that the Japanese Government is considering the blocking of the entrance of Chinese troops to the South Manchuria railway zone.

Japanese warships are hastening to important ports where Japajieso residents are residing in expectation of anti-Japanese outbreaks. DANGER NOT PASSED.

TOKIO, May G. Advices received from Tientsin state that the situation at Tsinan-fu is easier, though the danger has not passed. Relief forces hindered the destruction- by Southerners of the railway, telegraphs and telephones, which was part of a scheme for the isolation of the town. Unofficial estimates state that 300 were slaughtered outside the protected zone. Anxiety exists regarding 3000 Japanese troops in Tsinan-fu. Communications are interrupted, and wireless is unresponsive. No dispatches were received to-day. A War Office statement says that the attack on protective troops was an intentional prepared plan, and suggested at the instigation of Southern leaders antagonistic to Chang Kiashek, whose friendliness is unquestioned. Kai-shek has hitherto freely, cooperated with the Japanese commander in securing the safety of the residents. Reinforcements are being rushed to Dairen and Tsing-tao.

FRAGMENTARY INFORMATION

(United Service). TOKIO, May 5

A spokesman of the War Office, answering a question in the Diet, stated the office had only fragmentary, indefinite information, with no knowledge of evnts outside the Japanese guarded zone. Ther were ten Japanese dead and thirty wounded. The spokesman declared that military reports from the scene stated that the Southerners opened fire according to pre-arranged plan, but it was not clear whether the _ Nationalist headquarters wore responsible for the plan or not. The Japanese are singularly apathetic regarding the fate of their countrymen in Shantung. They are discussing chiefly the local political effect of the fighting, and the massacre. There is no demand for retribution.