CHINESE DEVOLUTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16591, 14 January 1916, Page 4

CHINESE DEVOLUTION

MUCH HIN'JKS ON YUNNAN. GENERAL TAIACS INFLUENCE. (Times and Sydney Son Services.) LONDON, January 12. The Times correspondent at Peking states that the situation in China is cbfxmred by the censorship, but the Chines© Government is moving large bodies of troops to strategic points with -the object of isolating the province of Yunnan and preventing the movement spreading to adjoining provinces. Serious developments are possible under the leadership of General Taiao, who possesses a strong character and wields great influence in Yunnan, where he has an army of 30,000 men, -with ample supplies of arms, and he has been promised substantial financial support. The mountains render security from attack in winter, therefore the Government id attempting to isolate Yunnan ajid negotiate for the surrender of the rebels. Meanwhile the provinces of Szechoaa, Kwangtung, and Kweiehorw are notoriously against President Yuan-Shih-Kai. Kwangtung is garrisoned by Yunnanese troops. The Government has 250,000 soldiers reputedly loyal in the Yangtse region, eagerly awaiting Imperial largesse. The arrival of considerable forces at Shanghai has restored confidence, and trade is brisk, but the monarchical proposal has revivified the revolutionary element, and the future is dependent on! developments in the south.