POSITION IN CHINA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20252, 11 May 1929, Page 11

POSITION IN CHINA.

APPRECIABLE IMPROVEMENT. NATIONALISTS IN CONTROL. British Wireless. RUGBY, Mny 9. Mr. G. Locker-Lampson, Under-Sec-retary for Foreign Affairs, made a statement in the House of Commons to-day about the present situation in China. He said there had recently been an appreciable improvement in the situation in the middle Yangtse Valley, which was now entirely under the control of the Nationalist Government.

Throe of tho defeated Kwangsi generals had expressed their -willingness to leave Hupeh if they wero given safe conduct under the British flag. Tho President, Marshal Chiang Kai-shek, had formally requested that this should be done in order to hasten the termination of hostilities. Accordingly the three generals had been conveyed to Shanghai in a British warship. In the Shantung province 'Marshal Chang Tsung-chang had definitely been heaten and had left the district. The forces of the " Christian general," Feng Yu-hsiang, had been withdrawn from Shantung into Honan and the control of the former province had been given to a Nanking (Nationalist) general. Nanking troops were now being transferred from the Tientsin area to North Honan. Shansi troops were being withdrawn to their own province from Peking and sent to reinforce the Shansi-Honan border. All Feng's adherents had left Nanking, where his quarters had been occupied by local troops. Kwangsi troops on May 4 advanced into Kwang-tung. The local authorities at Canton had sent gunboats to check tho invasion. Reports received did not indicate any anxiety as to tho safety of British subjects. Except for one missionary, who had elected to remain, all British subjects had been safely evacuated from Changte.