PURSUIT OF CHINESE

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 63, 7 March 1933, Page 3

PURSUIT OF CHINESE

By Japanese Forces FUGITIVES ARE HARRIED LACK OF LEADERSHIP AND ARMS By Telegraph—Copyright —Press Assn. SHANGHAI, March 6. The Japanese at Jehol are completing the pursuit of the defeated Chinese southward from Pingchuan and Linkou. Occasional clashes are occurring as the harried fugitives turn on the pursuers like snarling wolves, but they fail to check the advance. According to Japanese despatches, the Charwar Province adjoining Jehol westward is expected to declare its independence shortly and join Manchukuo. Bewailing the loss of Jehol and the failure of the Chinese troops to offer resistance, Dr. T. V. Soong, Minister of Finance, has issued a remarkable statement through the Kuomin Official News Agency, consisting of a crushing indictment of the Chinese military, which, he declares, is steeped in the traditions of old-fashioned warfare . Dr. Soong contrasts the differences in equipment and lack of leadership of the Chinese with the highly mechanised Japanese forces supported by every modern killing device on land, air and sea. He says: “Now the debacle has come the public demands scapegoats. The blame will, however, be found not with the individuals, but with the system which permits the existence of Vast armies of ill-fed. ill-armed and ill-trained soldiery which in a time of crisis become degenerate, helpless mobs. “Nevertheless, I maintain that' we did the right thing in fighting, if only to prove that Jehol is part of Chinese territory, and will not go by default. There will arise from the anvil of Japanese aggression something great and pure fashioned from the blood and tears of a nation writhing under the heel of aggression, but until our military leaders discard the eighteenth century conceptions of warfare and begin training a modern army, so long will we be a prey to any nation wishing to impose its will I upon China.” j

CORRESPONDENTS MISSING ALSO A WOMAN MISSIONARY SHANGHAI, March 5. Chinese and Japanese officials are anxiously seeking the whereabouts of three foreign correspondents missing in the Jehol Province since March 1. They are Colonel Sutton, a wellknown figure in China, and formerly adviser to Marshal Chang Hsueh Liang’s father; Mr. H. Rekins, United Press correspondent; and Mr. O. Lattimore, author. All three left Chengteh on March 1 toward Chief' eng, since when they have not been heard of. Miss Harriet Minns, an American missionary, is also reported missing.