POWERS ON THE ALERT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 355, 16 May 1928, Page 11

POWERS ON THE ALERT

China’s Storm Centre Shifts AMERICAN ADMIRAL GOES TO TIENTSIN (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian Press Association) Reed. 9.35 a.m. TOKYO. Tuesday. OWING to the gravity of impending events in North China. Admiral Bristol, Commander-in-Chief of the American Asiatic Fleet, who is in Japan on an official visit, informed a correspondent that he is leaving Yokohama on Wednesday night for Shimonoseki, where he will board an American destroyer on Thursday night for Tientsin.

Admiral Bristol’s flagship, the cruiser Pittsburg, will remain at Yokohama for some days, later sailing for Chingwantao, which is the American fleet’s regular summer headquarters. While Admiral Bristol cannot be quoted it is known that he sees the serious potentialities in the China situation. He will bend every effort to prevent the American forces from becoming involved. It is believed that Admiral Bristol is in full accord with the Washington State Department’s programme of evacuating the American nationals to the warships in the event of it being impossible to defend them in the Tientsin area without endangering the lives of Chinese civilians. Japanese and competent foreign observers, however, think that fighting in the Tientsin area is unlikely. They do not expect any repetition of the Tsinan incidents, since they feel that the geographical situation in Tientsin is entirely different. They emphasise that the city will adequately be defended by the large international forces, including Japanese, Ameri-

can, British and others. It is not anticipated here that it will be necessary to remove the foreign legations and nationals from Peking to Tientsin, and there are no indications that the Japanese Government is even considering such action. The commanders of the international forces at Tientsin have agreed upon the defensive measures to be adopted if the Southerners capture the city. The plan includes the stationing of a cordon seven miles in radius outside the city. The Japanese forces are to be entrusted with the task of protecting the most important foreign properties. It is reported that America has 4,000 troops at Tientsin, France 3,000

and Britain 1,000. There are also 20 airplanes and five tanks.

In spite of the Nanking Government’s prohibition an agitation has broken out in Shanghai among the students. They are endeavouring to create an anti-Japanese boycott. The effort is likely to fail owing to the reluctance of the Chinese merchants who deal in Japanese goods to cut off that business again. The students are agitating for the formation of a students’ training corps for the purpose of forming an army suitable eventually for taking revenge on the Japanese for the Tsinan affair. They also seek the substitution of a military training school for physical exercises. The Nationalist Government at Nanking has decided to dismiss General Ho Yao-tsu for his connection with the Tsinan outrages. This decision is officially stated to be unsatisfactory to Japan, which demands the severe punishment of Generals Ho Yao-tsu and Feng Ching-kwei for the Tsinan outrages and of General Chen Tao-vuan for the culpable cutting of the Kaio-chow-Tsinan railway. The nature of the Nanking Government’s foreign propaganda and the allegations made in its appeal to the League of Nations are also considered to constitute an exaggeration of its original offence.