PUPPET REGIME

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 73, 18 December 1937, Page 5

PUPPET REGIME

-Prest Assn.-

New Chinese "Government" at Peiping

JAPANESE ADVISERS

(By Telegraph-

-Copyright.)

(Received 18, 8.45 a.m.) LONDON. Dec. 17. The diplomatic correspondent of the Assoeiated Press understanda that authoritative reports from China leave no doubt that the ne>v Government in Peiping is a puppet of Japan. Most of the members are known to be pro-Japanese. Several were educated at the Imperial Gollege, Tokio. Their ages range from 60 to 80 years. One member is 75 and is almost blind. The Peiping correspondent of The Times reports that the proclamation announcing tbe formation of the new Governmelit denounces the Nanking regime for "imposing tyrannical measures and allowing the territory of China to be diminished." It declares that the teaeliings of the Kuomitang led to the war with Japan. The members of tbe new regime, therefore, decided to form a provisional Government for the purpose of restoring a democratio State and cleansing the country of party dictatorship and Communism. TKe Government henceforth " would assume all foreign obligations _ _ - All members of the new administration, which has been formed under Japanese military pressure, field ofBce in the. Peiping Government before the rule of Chang Tso-lin and individually command a measure of respeet. Three commissioners have been established as the executive of the judicial legislature, headed respectively by Wang Ke-min, who has held various posts under the Republie, Tung Mang, who was the Minister of Justicein 1921, and Tang Erh-ho, an ex-Minister and latterly a member of the Hopei-Chahar Council. The regime has received de facto recognition from Japan and seeks recognition from foreign Powers as the Government of China. Tang Erh-ho describes the Government as that of all parts of Chma from which the forces of the Ivuomintang have been driven. The appointment of Japanese advisers has already begun. The new Government is taking over the Chinese maritime Customs •' at Tientsin and Chinwangtao and announces tliat it will deal fairly with loans.