EASTERN DISPUTE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 6, 7 December 1931, Page 7

EASTERN DISPUTE

TROOPS CONCENTRATING. CHINESE NEAR MUKDEN. JAPANESE APPREHENSIVE. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) SHANGHAI, Dec. 5. Japanese military headquarters at Mukden state that nearly 40,000 Chi* nese troops are occupying the region between Chin-chow and Mukden. General Honjo, the Japanese commander, is non-committal on the question of whether he contemplates an advance on Chin-chow. It is reported that nearly 20,000 bandits and irregulars are overrunning the South Manchurian railways zone. These, with the Chinese concentration, endanger the small Japanese forces. CHINESE LEADERS. TWO RESIGNATIONS. DR. KOO AND. DR. SZE. SHANGHAI, Dee. 6. Nanking announces the resignations of Dr. Alfred Sze, delegate to Paris, and Dr. Wellington Koo, who was re-cently-appointed Minister of Foreign Affnirs. Dr. Sze, in a cablegram, complains that Chinese overseas delegates in Europe are applying pressure to him not to attend further sessions and to commence negotiations for China’s withdrawal from the League. President Chiang Kai-shelc has asked Dr. Sze to continue at his post, 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 the Government policy, especially in respect to the situation in the Chin-chow neutral zone. STUDENTS DEMONSTR ATE. PEKIN TRAFFIC HELD UP. PEKIN, Dec. 5. Denied free transportation to Nanking in order to put the views of Manchuria before the Central Government, 2000 university students held up all road traffic, here for twentyfour hours, and are still preventing trains entering or leaving the city. The demonstrators, who include girls, camped on the railway tracks throughout the night, despite the cold. The police hesitate to interfere, fearing reprisals. Trains from Tientsin are compelled to halt at a junction some miles from Pe .kin.