MARSHAL CHANG HSUEHLIANG

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 25 July 1929, Page 5

MARSHAL CHANG HSUEHLIANG

Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang, the eldest son of the famous Chang Tso-lin, who was assassinated in 1928 at Mukden, is a young man of 29 who to-day rules over Manchuria, a country larger in extent than France and Germany put together. Manchuria has a population of 30 millions, and by 1940 it may have 60 millions. That fate should have put this vast fertile country, which produces enormous quantities of foodstuffs, into the hands of a young man, may be productive of very interesting results. Chang Hsueh-liang learnt English when he was a boy of sixteen at the Y.M.C.A. institution in Mukden, little dreaming that it was to stand him in such good stead. To-day, when, he is master of his father's realm, he is able to carry on conversations with all foreign visitors in English; and he has by his side a young Scottish secretary, Mr James Elder, who was- brought up with him. Manchuria, has a. most powerful array of 300,000 well-equipped troops, and Chang Hseuh-liang is a child of this army, Having been put in an infantry regiment, by his father when he was sixteen. There are many who believe that Chang Hseuh-liang , is fated to rule from Pekin all China north of the Yellow River,