NEGOTIATIONS FAIL

Wairarapa Age, 24 May 1928, Page 5

NEGOTIATIONS FAIL

THE MANCHURIAN WAR LORD AND JAPAN. CHANG TSO-LIN DESIRES BUFFER STATE. 1 • GREAT BATTLE OPENED. United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. TOKIO, May 22. The negotiations between Chang Tso-Un and the Japanese Legation in Pekin for Chang’s orderly withdrawal into Manchuria appear to have broken down. The Foreign Office here states that Chang’s agent approached the Minister. Mr. Yoshizawa, at Pekin, on Tuesday night with a proposal that the Northerners would immediately withdraw into Manchuria provided that Japan would stop the Nationalist advance on Pekin and guarantee that the Pekin-Tientsin area would not be allowed to fall under Nationalist control. Mr. Yoshizawa refused, declaring that such a step would be a violation of neutrality. Chang’s desire apparently is for a sort of buffer State for the Pekin- * Tientsin area, which would be between the Nationalist domain and Manehuria. War Office advices substantiate this analysis, declaring that a major battle is already developing between the Southern and Northern forces, with preliminary fighting now under way between the Shansi army, which is part of the Southern attacking force, and Northern troops. The War Offiee states that about 200,009 of the Northern forces are opposing 220,000 of the attacking Southerners along a line from Nankon Pass around Pekin through Pantingfu and Tangehow. which are about sixty miles to the southward of Tientsin.—(Australian Press Association.—United Service.)