CHINA'S ARMY.

Northern Advocate, 30 January 1922, Page 6

CHINA'S ARMY.

STOR Y OF CANADIAN INSTRUC TOR. TO DRIVE OUT JAPANESE. SYDNEY, Jan. 18.

The reports of imminent outbreak of civil war in China anrl the danger it represents to settlement of the international rivalry in that region, impels the publication of a sensational story told recently to a "Herald" representative. It comes at first hand from a Canadian, who served through the war in King Edward's Horso and who is now, or was in November, in Sydney on leave from military service in China. He said that he had for months been chief instructor in a battalion (3500 stroHg) of Chinese Lewis-gun-ners in an army which was ultimately going to fight the Japanese. Ho declared that there were .130 other British or colonial instructors on six months' leave, like himself. Ostensibly their services were completed, "but." he added, "every one of us knows that in a few months' time we shall get the word to return to China." He was enthusiastic in liis praise of the trained Chinese soldier. "Every officer in the infantry regiments is a white officer," he said, "but in the Lewis-gun battalions we have Chinese officers. "What artillery have you?"—" British 18-pounders and Frcnch seventyfives. Very little heavy stuff. Ammunition?—plenty of it. The money comes from . . . well, from vbroad. Wo are well equipped with aeroplanes,, especially D.H.fls and Handley-Pages. The flying instructors are British and French, as they have been with the Japanese. The Chinese make highly capable pilots. "The instructors are British, French, and American soldiers who could not get employment in their own countries at the conclusion of the war. The feeling in China against the Japanese is intense."

Tt may be mentioned that the "Herald" representative who heard this story was during the great war a bro-ther-in-arms of the Canadian instructor. WU PEI-FU'S ELSE. The Tientsin correspondent of the "Morning Post" wrote last September: "In the spring of this year the rising power of the Northern Militarists received a shock by developments in the Mid-China Province of Hupeh. Following the riots of Ichang and W'ichang a force consisting of the army of Hunan, augmented by Hupeh malcontents, advanced against the unpopular Hupeh Tuchun, Wang Chan-yuan. To save the province the North sent General Wu Pei-fu to lead the Hupeh troops and, to date, despite the addition of Szechuan hostile forces, Wu Pei-fu has command of the situation.

"Wu Pei-fu's admirers have boon gratified by the publication in the Chinese Press of a circular telegram, of which he is said to be the author, proposing conferences of citizens and military Representatives at Lushan, in Chekiang. He proposes that the citizens' conference should be composed of three delegates elected by the Provincial Assemblies or public bodies of each province, and that it should be entrusted with the organisation of a Central Government for the whole of China, and empowered to make such modifications as may be necescury in the National Constitution. He suggests that a conference of military representatives, subordinate to the Citizens' Conference, should assemble simultaneously, to discuss such problems as disbandment, and the organisation of a National Army." i •_rr. 1 -

1 How to catch, a cunning rat is a problem that is not always easy to solve. At a meeting of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Sanitary Inspectors' Association, one of those present stated that a resident in Wellington had recently tried all manner of tempting morsels in his trap, but with- I out inducing the particular rat he was after to bite. Finally, it was decided to test the efficacy of vegetables as bait. The rat became curious and succumbed —to a carrot. Dr. W. F. Findlay (District Health Officer), who addressed the meeting on bubonic plague, remarked that competent authorities stated that the method of handling traps and poison was one to which great attention should be paid. When using spreading bait, the hands, and even the board on which the poison was made up, should be smeared with oil of aniseed. That disguised the smell of the hand, and rats were extremely fond of aniseed. Boiling of traps was another expedient resorted to for putting rats off the scent of human beings. It was found that after a time rats in a particular area would become "trap shy," therefore it was necessary to disguise the human element as much as possible.