TENSION MOUNTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 217, 13 August 1937, Page 8

TENSION MOUNTS

SINO-JAPANESE TROUBLE. BIG OUTBREAK I'EARED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph —Copy rigli t.) Received August 13, 1 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 12. “The outbreak of hostilities on a war scale is inevitable,” declared an official of the Japanese Embassy in London. A few hours later a message received in London from Nanking gave the statement from the Chinese Foreign Office: “China has no alternative but to act in self-defence and resist aggression. The responsibility for future developments rests entirely with Japan.” Shanghai expects that the next step by the Japanese, following the refusal to withdraw the troops, will be an ultimatum, followed in the event of a repeated refusal by bombardment from the warships or an air attack. Reports from Japan indicate that a most serious view is taken in Tokio. where the Ministers for War, the Navy and Foreign Affairs conferred at the Premier’s residence, after which the War Minister summoned the army chiefs to discuss the decision to be taken in conference. The Emperor gave an audience to the War Minister (Mr Sugiyama). The Cabinet is holding an emergency meeting to-morrow morning. . The Domei Agency reports that Chinese troops are converging on the Japanese section of Shanghai and fighting is inevitable. DRAMATIC DEVELOPMENT. Shanghai reports a dramatic development at the meeting of the International Truce Commission, when the Chinese representatives said they could not guarantee the inviolability of the International Settlement. They repeated the charge made in 1932 that the Japanese had used the settlement as a base for operations. The International Settlements defence force consists of 950 British troops, 1050 American marines, 600 French troops and 1900 volunteers. supported by a cruiser, H.M.S. Danae, the flotilla leader Duncan, three French and two American warships. Marshal Chiang Kai-shek’s 85th Division. stationed along the ShangliaiNanking railway, is moving towards Shanghai. Russian volunteers to-night closed Shanghai’s fifteen gates and manned five blockhouses west of the Japanese Hongkew district. The Chinese have blocked the lower Yangtse River with obsolete ships and removed the navigation marks with the object of preventing Japanese naval movements. . Five more Japanese destroyers ana transports, with a thousand troops, have arrived. The Japanese now occupy Nankow. The Chinese have fled to the hills, from which they will be difficult to dislodge.