DISPUTE WITH CHINESE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19719, 19 August 1927, Page 11

DISPUTE WITH CHINESE.

INCIDENT NEAE SHANGHAI. WINGS OF PLANE DETAINED. BRITISH RETALIATORY STEP. NO ANSWER TO DEMANDS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. A. and N.Z. SHANGHAI, Aug. 17. The Chinese authorities have detained the wings of a British military aeroplane which was forced to land in Chinese territorv. The matter was the subject of negotiations yesterday between the British Consul and the Chinese Commissioner of Foreign Affairs. No satisfactory conclusion was reached and the Consul departed after warning the commissioner that unless the wings of the machine were released by 11 a.m. to-day steps would be taken of a retaliatory nature in order to secure satisfaction. An official statement says that aC the time fixed no instructions for compliance with this demand had been issued by the commissioner. The officer commanding tho British forces in North China, General Duncan, therefore ordered posts south of the Hangchow railway and south of the Soochow Creek, to be occupied as from 2 p.m. General Duncan also' ordered the railway to be cut at 4 p.m. at a level crossing immeditely south of the Soochow Creek. These orders are being carried out. This point of the railway is adjacent to a large British encampment. It has been picketed since the earliest arrival of the Shanghai Defence Force. It is a strategic point in local military communications. An open railway along this line is vital in the present military crisis which is developing at Shanghai. A British official wireless message, referring to the affair, states that a British army aeroplane was making a practice flight at Shanghai when it made a forced landing, on tho international racecourse, a few miles from Shanghai, owing to engine arouble. The fuselage was removed, but Chinese troops quartered there obstructed the removal of the wings of the plane. PORTS ON YANGTSE. COMMERCIAL INTERESTS. VISIT OF INVESTIGATION. (British Official Wireless.) A. and N.Z RUGBY. Aug. 17. Despatches from Shanghai state that representatives of commercial concerns with interests at ports on the \anglse River, in company with British officials, will shortly proceed to Changsha, Ichang, Chungking and other centres up the river. The object is to inquire into the conditions prevailing in those localities.