CHINESE THROES

Northern Advocate, 23 May 1928, Page 5

CHINESE THROES

FOREIGNERS ENDANGERED REMOVAL OP AMERICANS. ARRANGEMENTS COMPLETED, (Australian Press Association.) (Received 10.fi a.m.) WASHINGTON, May 22. It is authoritatively stated that the Government has decided upon the evacuation of all Americans from North China in case of extreme emergency in the increasingly menacing military situation. Plans already completed provide for the withdrawal not only of civilians, but of American armed forces also.

The first step would be to remove the Legation and all* civilians to Tientsin,/followed by withdrawal of the American troops to that city. The State Department announced today that it sent a note on May 15 to the Chinese Nationalist Foreign Minister at Hwangfu, demanding that the murderers of the American missionary, Dr Walter Seymour, be arrested and executed. The note, Avhich was delivered at the Nationalist Bureau at Shanghai for transmission to Hwangfu, also demands the arrest and punishment of the officers responsible for thb looting of the American Mission.

MAJOR BATTLE DEVELOPS,

LARGE FORCES ENGAGED,

CHANG TSO-LIN TERMS REFUSED,

(United Service.) (Received 1.10 p.m.) TOKIO, May 22

The negotiations between Chang Tso-lin and the Japanese Legation in Peking for Chang’s orderly withdrawal into Manchuria appear to have broken down. The Foreign Office here states that Chang’s agent approached the Minister, Mr Yoshizawa, at Peking on Tuesday night with a proposal that the Northerners would immediately withdraw into Manchuria provided Japan -would stop the Nationalist advance on Peking and guarantee that the Peking-Tientsin. area would not be allowed to fall under Nationalist control. .

The Minister refused, declaring that such a step would be a violation of neutrality.

Chang’s desire is apparently for a sort of buffer state for the PekingTienstin area, which would be between the Nationalist domain and Manchuria. War Office advices substantiate this analysis, declaring that a major battle is already developing between the Southern and Northern forces, with preliminary fighting now under way between the Shansi army, which is part of the. Sohthern attacking force/and Northern troops.

The War Office adds that about 200.000 Northern forces are opposing 220.000 attacking Southerners along a line from Nankoid Pass, around Peking, through Paotingfi and Tangchow, which is about sixty miles southward of Tientsin.

Japanese merchants,, in retaliation upon the Chinese boycott in Shanghai, decided yesterday to refrain from purchasing Chinese export goods until the boycott. is lifted.