SITUATION IN CHINA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19958, 27 November 1926, Page 13

SITUATION IN CHINA

TERRORISM AT HANKOW. FOREIGNERS IN PERIL. ACUTE SHORTAGE OF FOOD. fPress Association—Bj Telegraph—Copyright.) PEKING, November 25. Japanese residents in Hankow are facing a food crisis as the result of rigid picketing of the markets and goods shops in the concessions by the strikers. The city is in the throes of a general strike of servants, wharf coolies, and foreigners’ employees, who are responsible for the picketing. Large shipments of foodstuffs arc being sent from Shanghai to Hankow in response to an urgent appeal. All business is at a complete standstill, and shipping operations are suspended. Several overseas vessels are held up, and are unlikely to get away for some months. The river is rapidly falling. The majority of the newspapers have suspended publication owing to the employees striking. The British and Americans have armed themselves, and are patrolling the concessions. The military declare that they are powerless to control the situation, which is in the hands of the labourers. The looting of foreign property outside the concessions has commended, and riots are hourly feared. Foreign flying squads are turning out frequently to quell outbreaks between the mobs and the foreigners, who insist on protecting their property. Bloodshed is often narrowly averted. The larger foreign warships are leaving shortly, as the river is falling, causing anxiety to the residents. The Yangtszc lightkeepers have declared a strike in sympathy with the Reds, who have commandeered all the lightships. The navigation of China’s greatest waterway is a hazardous undertaking. Customs cruisers are leaving Shanghai to cope with the situation. —;A. and N.Z. Cable. TREATY REVISIONS. THE SOVIET’S WAITING GAME. TOKIO, November 12. Practically recognising Canton’s right to be consulted internationally, the Foreign Office announces that the Japanes ; Minister at Peking will leave shortly for Shanghai and Canton to ascertain the popular desires regarding treaty revision and also to explain the Japanese attitude. The movements of M. Tchernych, the new Soviet Ambassador to China, are interesting Japan. M. Tchernych, although he has been a month in China, is avoid ing Peking and staying at Harbin. It is reported that M. Tchernych has been instructed from Moscow not to recognise Peking, but to delay presenting his credentials, pending the expected occupation of the capital by the Cantonese or the forces of the “Christian General Feng Yu-hsiang. It is officially stated that the Emperor is not in immediate danger. POSITION OF MANCHURIA. SHANGHAI, November 12. The visit by Marshal Chang Tso-lin, the Mukden war lord, to Peking is arousing considerable interest in foreign and Chinese circles. It is common knowledge that his conservative advisers are persuading him to declare that Manchuria is apart from China and to establish Manchuria’s autonomy on a parallel with the establishment of the Laio kingdom of 1000 years ago. Should this occur it will mean the complete severance of Chang Tso-lia s territory from the rest of China, leaving the balance to “stew in its own fat.” Colour is lent to the report by the presence in Mukden of Baron Okura, the famous Japanese financier, who, it is reported, is negotiating a loan to Chang Tso-lin of about £2,000,000,