CANTONESE DRIVE.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 16 March 1927, Page 5

CANTONESE DRIVE.

—Press Association-

(AuSir^lian and N.Z. Pr®-c Asaoeiatija )

MEETS STERN RESISTANCE. ANTI-STRIKE VENDETTA.

(Cable-

— Copyrigbt.;

PEKING, March 14. Reports indicate that a Cantonese drive to the coast on a'one hundred mile front commenced simultaneously with fierce fighting, but the Cantonese are not achieving the suc/cess anticipated, meeting with the deadly machine gun and Stolces' gun fire of the Shangtung-Chichli allied armies entrenched on the Shanghai-Nanking railway, which is the objective of the Cantonese. The latter launched and relaunched offensives simultaneously on several points, with heavy losses. AntiRed reinforcements are arriving to strengthen the defences. The present battle, it is bonsidered, will decide the fate of Shanghai. The Reds have not yet attac.ked in full force for the niajority ^of their troops are still crossing the difficult lake district between Hangchow and Nanking. The defence lines have already heien pienced by a guerilla force cutting communications and derailing military trains engaged in the maintenance of communications between the defending points. Numbers of troops captured were e^xecuted immediately. Meantime Cantonese agents at Shanghai are waging deadly war on the anti-strike leaders. Daily a couple of mill foremen and forewomen who refused to ohey the orders of the General Labourers' Union are murdered, but in one instance the assassins were arrested. The killer confessed that he was paid ten dollars by the Union to slay a forewoman. The matter is Teaching a climax, for the authorities believe that ^hey must take 1 drastic action to frrotect the workers, otherwise the latter will be compe\led to strike to save their lives. f