EVENTS IN CHINA

Evening Star, Issue 19665, 19 September 1927, Page 5

EVENTS IN CHINA

MILITARY SITUATION QUIET HANKOW AND NANKING GOVERNMENTS EFFORTS TO UNITE. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SHANGHAI, September 17. The military situation is quiet. A conference between j'epresentatives of the Hankow and Nanking Governments has commenced, but little has been accomplished as yet owing to the unexpected resignation of Wang Chimvei, chief of tlie Central ■ Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, at the eleventh hour. It is believed that the remaining delegates wall proceed _ with the conference, which was originally Manned in order to unite Hankow and Nanking. The preliminary trial cf fifteen Russians who were arrected during a raid on the Soviet Embassy -.n Peking in March has been concluded, and all were found guilty of agitating to produce internal disturbance in China. They will be subjected to a further trial in the High Procurate Court at an early date. SHANGHAI CRIME WAVE SWEEPING INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT. DELIBERATE CAMPAIGN ALLEGED. SHANGHAI, September 18. (Received September 19, at 10 a.m.) An unprecedented wave of crime is sweeping Shanghai, principally in the International Settlement. The authorities are alarmed, wondering if the world’s crime centre has shiited from Chicago to Shanghai. Tiie area of the settlement is 0,5'00 acres, and the police total 3,533, including whiles, Chinese, and Indians, in addition to hundreds of reserves and specials, yet outrageous crimes occur daily in'broad daylight in the settlement's busiest thorough lares. ,• Street battles .between the police and desperadoes are becoming common,, and kidnappings happen under the noses of the police. The authorities blame the thousands of disbanded Northerners who were captured in the recent lighting around Nanking. Many had secreted arms and ammunition, which is now being used to terrorise the foreign settlements. Further blame is laid on the provisional court, which is controlled by Chinese, which deals with cases affecting natives and noii-extruierritorial foreigners arising within the settlement. It refuses to impose the death penalty, and otherwise deals’ lightly with criminals brought to justice. The September record averages seven armed hold-ups daily and three armed kidnappings. Wealthy Chinese are in the majority of cases the victims, and they are murdered if the ransom is not forthcoming. In addition there are scores of armed hold-ups. A strange feature of the situation is that crime outside the settlement is considerably less than within, suggesting an organised. effort to reduce to a minimum the'well-known security afforded in foreign settlements hi the past. The opinion in certain circles is that it is a deliberate campaign instigated by the Chinese authorities to create a situation that would justify a further claim to assume control of the settlement, apart from the original Nationalist programme.