SITUATION IN CHINA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19965, 6 December 1926, Page 9

SITUATION IN CHINA

PROTECTION OF LIFE. BRITISH COMMANDER’S . Confidence. (Pres* Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, December 3. “We possess the ablest Commander-in-Chief in China,” declared Mr W. C. Briclgcman (First Lord of the Admiralty) in a speech at Bromley. “Ho cabled that he has sufficient strength available to protect life, which is all that is required of him. That is true, in my opinion, but wc replied that if the admiral considered his force insufficient we would do our best to send reinforcements.” —A. and N.Z. Cable. Vice-admiral Sir E. S. Alexander-Sin-clair was appointed to the China Naval command in October of last year. He served in the Great War with distinction, and took part in the Jutland battle. BRITISH FIRMS’ PLIGHT AT SWATOW. NO BUSINESS SINCE JULY 1. 1925. Tho following memorandum by Mr John Robinson, of Bradley and Co. (Lloyd s agents) in Swatow, and the ivev. A. Guthrie Gamble, of the English Presbyterian Mission, dated August 26, "' as Pupated at the request of the Tientsin Uomnl“From 1911 to 1925 the aggregate of trade and sliippmg increased enormously and Swatow reached the position of the tilth port in the whole ot China in point of Customs P.evenue and general trade importance. Not a word was heard of antiBritish movements and the rights of foreigners resident as guests m an alien country were respected. “In tho early months of 1925 there arrived in Clanton a coterie of Russians, emissaries of the Government of the boviet Socialist Republic. This group, was under the command ol Jacob Borodin, the ac credited representative of the Moscow Government. (The notorious activities of Borodin became familiar to readers of tne Daily Mail last winter through the despatches sent by Sir Percival Phillips, who was then in China on a mission of investigation.) In Borodins tram were advisers who were subseuqently attached to every department of the Canton Government, and others who proceeded openly to reorganise the armed forces of the Government. . . . „ .l “From the arrival of this group fates the beginning of Bolshevism and anti-British propaganda m South China. In 1925 an army from Canton commanded by Russians occupied Swatow. Labour organisations were formed and employees guilds were .persuaded to remodel themselves on Soviet lines. It is noticeable that the Chinese business community and, indeed all the better class Chinese have held rigidly aloof from the new doctrines. “On July 1 all employees of British farms and residents were ordered by a strike committee working under Government instructions to leave their employment, of British ships were forced out. storekeepers were ordered to refuse provisions to British ships and residents and the Chinese were forbidden to hold any communication with tho British. The means adopted to carry out these measures were wholesale intimidation of Chinese and their families, imprisonment and torture of strike and boycott breakers and seizure and confiscation of British goods. # “This movement has continued unaoated ever since. The following figures of gross tonnage under the British flag which entered the port show the enormous shrinkage due to the boycott; No. of ships. Tonnage. 1924. July Ito Dec. 31 ... 681 918.029 1925, July Ito Dec. 31 ... 88 1i0,i40 “The method employed to boycott British vessels is simple and effective. The strike committee organised in July, 1925, a fleet of motor boats maimed, by armed pickets. These boats keep up a patrol round any British vessed that comes into the harbour No Chinese are allowed near the ship.’ Any who have attempted to run the gauntlet have been fired on. For lo months not a single British steamer has discharged or loaded a package of cargo ,;ther than private stores for the foreign community. . /‘British firms engaged in the importation of oil, Lancashire and Yorksnire textiles, coal and tobacco products, those concerned with the export of sugar, fruit, and Chinese products generally, and also the banking and insurance departments of British offices have done no business whatever since July 1, 1925. They have been entirely dependent on the British Navy for the necessities of life. The loss to British trade has been enormous and largely irrecoverable. Extensive and profitable lines of business have passed into the hands of Chinese and others. “The Government has supported savageries and has insulted foreign consuls and treated their protests with open contempt. “The continuous presence of a British gunboat has doubtless helped to preserve the persons of British subjects from assault and violence, but tho presence of H.M. naval ships has not served to prelect British property. Many attacks have been made on British property and in not one instance has H.M. Government made the slightest attempt to prevent the outrages; nor has any compensation been obtained for wilful and wanton destruction.’