CHINESE SOLDIER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20114, 7 December 1939, Page 5

CHINESE SOLDIER

PASSING OF WU ABLE COMMANDER PEKING, Dec. 4. The death lias'occurred of Marshal Wu Pei-Fu, as a result of blood poisoning, due lo an infected tooth, for which he underwent an operation early last week. In all the turmoil of the years prior to 1928 in China, Marshal Wu Pei-Fu stood out as one of the ablest of the Northern commanders. He was always regarded as eminently a soldier and as an honest man. He entered the army as an officer's servant. but rose rapidly until he commanded tile chief Northern forces and achieved many notable successes. In 1924 he found a rival in Chang TsoLin, and suffered defeat at his hands. Fleeing to Japan, Wu spent a few months there and then returned to China and managed to reach a working understanding with Chang. He had hopes of uniting the whole ol Chine, bui the Cantonese rising upset his plans, and their capture of Hankow was a blow from which his reputation could not recover. In April, 1928, the Chinese press at Peking announced that lie had retired to a monastery m Tibet.