ALARM IN PEKING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20151, 21 May 1928, Page 7

ALARM IN PEKING

JAPAN’S STEP CAUSES SPECULATION DESULTORY FIGHTING REPORTED [ Australian Press Assn. J Received May 20, 6 p.m. SHANGHAI, May 19. Japan’s apparent determination to intervene in China is creating considerable agitation in foreign diplomatic circles in Peking. The Japanese statement was presented simultaneously to the three antiNortaem • leaders—Genera’. Feng-yu Hsiang, General Chiang Kai-shek and the Shansi Governor, General Yen Shihsan, declaring Japan’s determination Io preserve Manchuria from lite ravages of war. This virtually asserts Japan’s dctermiiiauon to establish a protectorate in Manchuria, possibly immediately. Japan is evidently willing to permit Manual Chang Tso Lin ’s armies to withdraw into Manchuria, if disciplined, but will not permit the passage of a defeated and undisciplined rabble. It is understood that Japan advised Marshal Chang Tso Lin to return to Manchuia immediately while his armies were intact, but the dictator refused flat iy. Desultory lighting is proceeding 80 miles south of Peking, the Northerners offering strong resistance to South erners’ advance. The final struggle between North and South i? predicted to eventuate at Shan-haikwar.. the gateway of Man churia, also at Dolonor, the extreme boundary of China proper. The Nationalists’ now engaged in sweeping the remnants of the Northern armies from the Tientsin. Pukow, Hankow and Peking railways prior to an assault on Tientsin, which is actiripat ed to fall before the Nationalists without serious fighting. Little resistance is expected until the assault at the Great Wall. Two troop trains bearing defeated Shantungese soldiers to Manchuria collided and 300 were killed.