JAPAN WILL NOT MOVE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 361, 23 May 1928, Page 1

JAPAN WILL NOT MOVE

No Intervention for Chang MAJOR BATTLE DEVELOPING (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (United Service) Received. 11.7 a.m. TOKYO, Tuesday. THE negotiations between Chang Tso-Lin, the Northern leader, and the Japanese Legation at Peking for Chang’s orderly withdrawal into Manchuria, appear to have been broken off, the Foreign Office here stating that Chang’s agent approached the Japanese Minister, Mr. Yoshizawa, at Peking on Tuesday night, with a proposal that the Northerners would immediately withdraw into Manchuria,, provided Japan would stop the Nationalist advance on Peking, and guarantee that the Pekir.g-Tientsin area would not be allowed to fall under Nationalist control.

Mr. Yosliizawa refused, declaring that such a step would he a violation of neutrality. Chang’s desire apparently is for a sort of buffer State for the PekiugTientsin area, which would be between the Nationalist domain and Manchuria. War Office advices substantiate this analysis, declaring that a major battle is already developing between the Southern and Northern forces, with preliminary fighting now under way between the Shansi Army (which is a part of the Southern attacking force) and the Northern troops. The War Office states that about 200,000 of the Northern forces are opposing 22,000 attacking Southerners along the line from Nankow Pass,, around Peking, through Paotingfu and Tangchow, which is about 60 miles southward of Tientsin. A Shanghai message says that Japanese merchants, having decided on retaliation of the Chinese boycott, yesterday decided to refrain from purchasing Chinese export goods until the boycott is lifted. AMERICAN WITHDRAWAL ALL ARRANGEMENTS MADE MURDER OF MISSIONARY (Australian Press Association) Reed. 9.5 a.m. WASHINGTON, Tues. It is authoritatively stated that the Government has decided upon the evacuation of all Americans from North China, in case of an extreme emergency arising from the increasingly menacing military situation. Plans have been already completed to provide for the withdrawal, not only of civilians, but of the American armed forces also.

The first step would be to remove the legation and all civilians to Tientsin. This would be followed by the withdrawal of the American troops to that city. The State Department announced to-day that it sent a Note on May 15 to the Chinese Nationalist Foreign Minister, Hwang Fu, demanding that the murderers of the American missionary, Dr. Walter Seymour, be arrested and executed. The Note was delivered to the Nationalist Bureau at Shanghai for transmission to Hwangfu. It also demands the arrest and punishment of the officers who were responsible for looting the American mission. BRITISH SAFETY TROOPS ARE AVAILABLE British Official Wireless Retd. 10.55 a.m. RUGBY, Tuesday. Making a statement the House of Commons regarding the situation in China, Mr. G. T. Locker-Lampson, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said no great progress had been made by the Southern forces in their advance on Peking and Tientsin, and the latest reports showed that the Northern forces were offering resistance south of Paotingfu. He added that recently a battalion of less than two companies of the Shanghai defence force had been dispatched from Shanghai to Weihaiwei, where for some time past there had been one company. This movement had been undertaken primarily for training purposes, and in order to give the troops the benefit of the more congenial climate; hut they would he available for the defence of British lives and property at Tientsin, if necessary, and were only about a day away.