CHINESE AFFAIRS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 30 May 1927, Page 5

CHINESE AFFAIRS.

A MOSCOW PLOT.

TO PUT BRITAIN IN WRONG. Press Association- Electria Telegraph-Copyright. (Received Monday, 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, Sunday. Despatches from a Dublin correspondent reveal details of an extensive plot engineered by Moscow for the purpose of deceiving the Northern Chinese into the belief that Britain is arming the .Southerners. •The Soviet were aware that twenty thousand British short Lee-Enfield rifles and bayonets, and twenty million rounds of ammunition handed over to the Free State when the Treaty was signed, were now available for purchase. Accordingly they approached a notorious German firm, lengthily engaged in gun-running, which enlisted the service of two international adventurers, notable gun-runners and seditious agents, who, provided with American passports and unlimited finance, arrived in London, where they established communication with a man moving in Parliamentary circles, who was in close touch vpth certain Free State offi- ’ eials. A Dublin official went to London and arranged with agents 1 that the deal should be carried out on a cash 'basis. The agents went to Dublin with £IOO,000 in bank notes, and the deal is now on the point of completion. / Rifles are being shipped from Dublin aboard a German vessel for Nanking, with the understanding that the bill of lading will not be questioned. It is pointed out that the Free State Government has not entered the China arms embargo agreement; accordingly there is no question of the legality of exporting arms to China, particularly, in view of the rifles having been available to legitimate buyers, but it is believed that the Free State imagines that the rifles are" destined for a South American republic. Moscow’s, plot aims not at arming the Southerners, but that, in the event of a Communist rout and the consequent surrender of .weapons, the Northerners should discover British arms, leading to the supposition that Britain, despite Sir A. Chamberlain’s declarations 'of neutrality, had been arming Eugene Chen’s followers. Agents went to Belfast for the purpose of securing further British arms in possession of the Ulster Government volunteers, and are prepared to pay a further £IOO,OOO, but they are not likely to be successful. — 1 ‘ Sun. ’ ’