KIAOCHAU'S DEFENCES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2286, 21 October 1914, Page 5

KIAOCHAU'S DEFENCES

GARRISON OF 7000 MEN

POSITION IN CHINA

(Rec. October 20, 9.55 p.m.J Sydney, October 20. Eastern files referring to the Kiaochau defences state that both by sea and hind they aro of modern typo and very strong. The garrison has available a force of between six and seven thousand men. Tt is anticipated that the siege will not he hurried as there i 6 no chance of the arrival of any relief force and it is unnecessary to sacrifice life in hurrying operations.

The statement was current at HongKong that five thousand Germans had sent in their wills to Peking and had taken on oath to defend Tsing-tao the cost of their lives.

The Peking correspondent of tho "North China Times" says that certain myopic Germans had been employing all means available to influence the Chinese Government against the allied European nations and Japan. Anonymous articles of a scurrilous nature were launched against Britain in 'particular, and evidence of German inspiration is detectable in various Chinese papers. The correspondent adds: "If anti-foreignism develops in China at this juncture the genesis of it will be found in the campaign now carried on by the Germans in various parts of the oountry."

The same correspondent states: "The leisurely manner the Japanese are going about the siege of Tsing-tao is worrying the Germans, particularly the unhappy wights' within the death-trap. Chinese "opinion is that Germany is simply throwing away the lives of the Tsing-tao garrison, and the Chinese ask what have they done to be ordered to pen themselves up to be shot at and killed for no good purpose."