WAR IN CHINA

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 20 December 1926, Page 8

WAR IN CHINA

'Per Press Association —Copyright PEKING. December 18. A meeting of Ministers considered the document from the British Charge d’Affaires, which it is understood contained matters of considerable importance. regarding the general policy in China. It is believed the reason for Britain despatching the Suffolk regiment from Gibraltar to Hongkong, lies not in the Chinese menace, but in the activities of the Soviet, which is massing troops on the Manchurian frontiers It is reported from Manchuria that the Soviet authorities have reinforced Russia’s infantry strength in Dauria, near the Chinese frontier, increasing the force from three to eight battalions. They are also mobilising sixty artillery batteries and air force. It is not generally believed the Soviet forces will dare cross the frontiers. The military movements are regarded merely as a demonstration as yet, but relations between the Peking Government and the Soviet are strained. The theatre of the Chinese war is rapidly moving nearer Shanghai, though serious fighting is still in progress in the vicinity of Tchang, where the Reds, after a stiff engagement, drove out the occupying force. Foreign women and children, herd?d in the compound, are guarded by British marines. The anti-Reds commandeered the Italian and French river boars and looted Ichang before fleeing. Five separate armies are hovering in the vicinity of Shanghai. The Red force reached Wenchow and Chekiang, where severe fighting is reported. Shanghai i.s in a state of turmoil, and looting has commenced. A Japanese gunboat i,s rushing to the scene in response to an appeal from the Consular body. SHANGHAI. December 17. It appeal's that a mere handful of southerners, in plain clothes, entered Hangchow on Tuesday and cut the railway’s on Wednesday morning, but evacuated the city on Wednesday night, following the restoration of communication with Shanghai, when General Sun Chuan Feng sent 4500 loyal troops to Hangchow to reinforce 9000 loealists there. The report that Chekiang had. declared its independence is unfounded. The report arose from the doubtful attitude of 6000 troops at Hangchow. LONDON, December 18. “We have nearly doubled the number of ships at the China Station, not aggressively to China, but to protectBritish lives and property, and keep the peace,” said the Rt. Hon. W Bridgeman (First Lord of the Admiralty) in a. speech at Finchley. The people asked, he said. why ' Britain did not lead the way to disarmament. His reply was that Britain had disarmed more than anv other country, and had also fulfilled eomPletdy the Washington Conference obligations. “All we were doing now,” added the Minister, “was to make ourselves of equal strength to any other country. We would willingly enter a Disarmament Conference, but we must ask others to remember that the freedom of the seas is more important to :«>• than to them.”