CHINESE TROUBLE

Hokitika Guardian, 21 January 1927, Page 3

CHINESE TROUBLE

[Australia & N.Z. Cable Association.]

PREPARATIONS FOR SAFETY.

(Received this day at 11.0 a.m.) SHANGHAI, January -0. * The interior ol China is last being drained of foreign merchants and missionaries who are leaving on instructions, the llritish proceeding to Hankow or the nearest river port, where they are picked up by British gunboats and transferred to Shanghai, which is sheltering thousands of foreign refugees from all parts of ( hina. Britain’s future moves are clouded hy uncertainty. Messages daily re-

ceived state additional naval reinforcements are proceeding to China. T’n- * tisli warships of a smaller class con- , tin no to proceed to Hankow, where the t Legation Secretary, Air O’Malley, con- ' tiniies to negotiate wim the Chinese. Extraordinary precautions are being taken against mob uprisings. The international French settlements are erecting a barbed wire barricade at - important inter-sections and even twelve-foot iron gates at the most important places.

The erection of accommodation for # the large force of foreign troops from overseas is proceeding at strategic points. An hotel in the heart ol tin settlements has been fortified in preparation for receiving women and , children in ease of necessity. Everything points to a determined resistance hy Shanghai authorities against a. repetition of the Hankow incidents. Industrial strikes, always the forerunner of riots, are already hero. Trains are paralysed and the electricity servicee threatened. Missionary work in China henceforth is doomed, missionary protests notwithstanding. It has suffered the greatest blow in its his- ' tory. All save a few die-hards are deserting the posts and heading lioin Shanghai. Szechwan Province, regarded as tiie

greatest field for missionary work, is X icing evacuated systematically by its five hundred missionaries of all laitlis. Even the so-called Christian, General Fengyuhsiaug. is hounding missionaries from the territory under his control. A few missionaries in the interior are held by the Chinese as hostages against British reprisals, wihich are greatly feared by Chinese, as a. result of the Hankow incident, which conservative Chinese consider over-stepped international frendship. SPANISH CRUISER. MADRID. January 20. Spain is despatching a cruiser Don Biaslezo to Shanghai.