CHINA PLANS LARGE NAVY PROGRAMME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18545, 20 August 1928, Page 4

CHINA PLANS LARGE NAVY PROGRAMME.

MUST ELEVATE HERSELF TO RANK AMONG POWERS. (United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) SHANGHAI, August 18. Nationalist China plans to build a modern navy, aggregating 600,000 tons, within ten years, as part of the programme of national reconstruction, according to Marshal Chiang Kai-shek in a speech at the launching of the first Nationalist gunboat for the Yangtse River service. The present Chinese navy consists of 40,000 tons of obsolete shipping. Chiang said: “We want to recover our national rights and privileges. We must first build a very laTge naval force in order to elevate China to the rank of the leading nations of the world.” Among the resolutions passed at the National Commi4nications Conference at Nanking yesterday were these:— That the contracts of the China Eastern Extension Telegraph Company and the British and the Danish Great Northern Telegraph Company be revised, that the Japanese Mitsui wireless agreement be annulled, and that the powerful French radio station at the French Concession, Shanghai, be abolished. It is., sought, also, to allocate the British Boxer Indemnity Fund to complete the repair of the Chinese railways.—Australian Press Association— United Service. ECONOMIC WAR AGAINST JAPAN. SHANGHAI, August IS. An economic war against Japan is advocated and is likely to eventuate in Manchuria, for the purpose of weakening Nippon’s position there. To-day’s despatches from Mukden reveal that all the provincial guilds and trade assemblies are combining to support the anti-Japanese movement. The anti-Japanese sentiment is rapidly intensifying, principally due to the widespread belief that Japan instigated the assassination of Chang Tso-lin. Japan’s threat to intervene in the event of Mukden hoisting the Nationalist flag resulted in the postponement of hoisting the flag for three months. Economic warfare is now voted the best means of ousting Japan from Manchuria and unifying North and South China under one flag.— Australian Press Association—United Service.