BROKEN OFF

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 196, 20 July 1937, Page 9

BROKEN OFF

SINO-JAPANESE NEGOTIATIONS

FINAL WARNING TO CHINA

(United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received July 20, 9.55 a.m. TOKIO, July 19. Tlie negotiations between China and Japan have been broken off because the Chinese troops entrenching at Lioukoucliiao fired on the Japanese advance guards. A Nanking message states that the Japanese Military Attache has delivered to the Chinese War Office a final warning to withdraw the Chinese troops. Aircraft have been sent to Hopei.

CONCILIATORY" REPLY,

sengers. The Chines© Foreign Office protested to the Japanese Embassy, reserving the right to demand compensation for these illegalities. PREMATURE REPORT.

The Chinese Central Government has replied to the Japanese demands by virtually rejecting them. The reply, which was conciliatory in tone, offered counter-proposals. According to a Shanghai message, China’s reply said that the movements of the Japanese troops indicated a resort to force, whereas tlie Chinese, while taking precautions in their selfdefence, desired the maintenance of peace. She therefore proposed that both sides agree to a date for the cessation of all military movements and the withdrawal of their forces to their former positions'. It is understood in Tokio that the Chinese counter-proposals are not acceptable to the Japanese.

DEMANDS NOT GRANTED. TIENTSIN, July 19. The Japanese military authorities now declare that the report that Mr Sung Chen Yuan had agreed to the Japanese demands is ■ premature. Mr Sung merely called to pay his compliments. It is estimated that there are 14,560 Japanese troops in the Hopei province. Four batteries of field artillery arrived yesterday, night. The Domei News Agency of Tokio declares that the Chinese are concentrating troops in North China in defiance of Colonel Okido’s warning on Sunday. The “production” party of extreme Right Wingers, affiliated to tlie Black Dragon. Society, have sent a letter to the British Embassy asserting that the Japanese action is based solely on self-defence and requesting Britain to refrain from intervention.

The Domei Agency, in a message from Tientsin, states: “The Japanese garrison in North China announces that unless the Chinese cease immediately activities like those at Lioukouchiao and also the moving of troops northward, the Japanese will take ’free action at any time on or after July 20.’ ”

A Nanking message says the Chinese reply to Japan is being drafted after a long-distance ’phone talk with Marshal Chiang Kai-shek, who is holidaying at Killing. It will insist on the respect of China’s territorial and sovereign rights. A Hongkong message states that all British troops except one company will be withdrawn from Hanghaikwan and concentrated at Tientsin. Meanwhile the Embassy guards at Pekin are being reinforced.

“NO LOOKING BACK.”

A Killing message states that Marshal Chiang Kai-Shek said China’s sovereign rights could not be sacrificed even at the expense of war, from which there would be no looking back when it "as once begun.

TROOPS REINFORCED

JAPANESE AT PEIPING

LONDON, July 18. The Tokio correspondent of the Times says the War Office has issued a statement in which it said Japan could not wait indefinitely for the fulfilment of Chinese promises and must press for satisfaction. Military preparations were for the first time evident in Tokio to-day, when fleets of requisitioned lorries were driven through the streets amid citizens waving flags. Cabinet has made an allocation of ten million yen from the reserve for military purposes. The Daily Telegraph’s Peigping correspondent says that Japanese troops in the neighbourhood of the city are being heavily reinforced at the rate of ten trains a day. This accounts for Japan’s hardening attitude. The Japanese are now expected every hour to begin an advance along the Peiping-Hankow railway. Meanwhile the Chinese Twentyninth Army, which the Japanese regard as particularly unfriendly, has built a formidable three-fine trench system on the Peiping plain north of I.iukouchiao, but it does not possess artillery and other essential equipment. . . ■

BRITAIN HOPEFUL. SYMPATHY EXPRESSED. (British Official Wireless.) Received July 20, 11.55 a.m. RUGBY, July 19. The situation in China remained confused and anxious, said the Foreign Minister (Mr R. A. Eden) in opening the debate on foreign affairs in the House of Commons. However, all the indications encouraged the belief that the present situation, grave as the possibilities were, was not deliberately provoked by either Government. There was clearly a danger inherent in the situation and His Majesty’s Government had been in consultation with the Chinese and Japanese, and also other Governments concerning the general situation. The United States and France, like Britain, had expressed concern and hope for a peaceful settlement. Mr Eden continued: “We do not believe that China and Japan need be iu conflict. We have watched with sympathy the efforts mado by China in recent years to develop her vast resources and at the same time "e have not been unmindful of the economic difficulties of Japan. Is it too much to hope that both the Governments will yet make a determined effort to endeavour to find a comprehensive settlement to their difficulties?”

The Daily Telegraph’s Nanking correspondent reports that Japanese aeroplanes machine-gunned Chinese trains on the Peiping-Hankow railway, killing and wounding ten pas-