ASSASSINS FAIL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 765, 11 September 1929, Page 9

ASSASSINS FAIL

CHINESE PRESIDENT WOUNDED MORE GUARDS EXECUTED (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. 9.43 a.m. SHANGHAI, Tuesday. President Chiang Kai-Shek’s failure to attend a reception on Monday to a Chinese squadron of aviators is taken as a confirmation of reports that another attempt was made to assassinate on Sunday, when, it is stated, he was actually wounded in one hand. Details are not available. However, further members of the president's bodyguard have been executed. In spite of frantic attempts to preserve secrecy (said a Shanghai message of September 5), it has been revealed that the bodyguard of Marshal Chaing Kai-shek attempted to assassinate Chiang and his wife, on the night of August 2S, when they were staying at a residence in the French concession at Shanghai. The plot was d:"| covered through an over-anxious conspirator firing his pistol before the proper time. All the plotters were arrested and the French police handed them over to the Chinese authorities. Other members of the bodyguard, who Were at Nanking, were also disarmed and imprisoned. The chief of the French police admits the accuracy of the report, but refuses to give information for fear that the story will leak out locally. Two theories are advanced. The first is that on a recent visit by Chiang Kai-shek and his bodyguard to Peking the latter learned that General Chang Hsueh-liang’s guard iu Manchuria were better paid. Consequently, they were discontented.

The second theory is that the attempted assassination was the work of alleged emissaries of Feng Yu-hsiang, the “Christian General,” one of whom was arrested in the course of the investigations.