MILITARISM IN CHINA.

Wairarapa Age, 15 February 1927, Page 5

MILITARISM IN CHINA.

TWO MILLIONS UNDER ARMS. HUGE STOCK OF MUNITIONS. (Received Monday, 7.15 p.m.) LONDON, February 14. The “Daily Express” Shanghai correspondent says the first English troops will land at eleven on Monday morning, when the Second Durhams and Second Gloucesters disembark. They will be confined strictly to the British settlement. There arc now two' million under arms in China. Great quantities of aeroplanes, machine guns, and small arms are coming in, not only from Russia, which is the principal source for the Cantonese, but from France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Not a little has been landed openly by German steamers, Germany not being a party to the Washington agreement. The trade in. smuggled arms has been going on on a colossal scale since 1923. Included in the total are a quantity of Remington rifles and other stores which were left in the neighbourhood of Vladivostock when the American and Allied forces wore withdrawn in 1918. The Chinese have arsenals at Mukden, Hanyang, Nanking and elsewhere.— (A. and N.Z.)

LANDING OF TROOPS. DEMONSTRATION AT SHANGHAI. (Received This Day, 0.55 a.m.) PEKIN, February 14. The first landing of white troops at Shanghai since the Boxer troubles was made the occasion to-day of a great though quiet public demonstration by the foreign population, when the Second Gloucesters and Second Durhams landed after being two days aboard their transports at the dockside. Headed by the Colours and their own bands, with the naval bands from His Majesty’s vessels in port, the fifteen hundred men of tho battalions in full kit, with fixed bayonets marched five miles from the docks to their quarters through the principal streets. Immense crowds of Chinese lined the route. There was no sign of hostility.—(A. and N.Z.).

NO SINGLE GOVERNMENT. WHY LEAGUE DOES NOT ACT. GENEVA, February 13. League circles agree that successful intervention in China is impossible because at present no single Government is recognised by the other members. The conviction is growing that the only solution will be to ask the United States to resummon the signatories to the Washington Treaty. Mr. Chu,‘ the permanent Chinese representative here, nevertheless declares that he will represent both Pekin and Canton at the meeting of tho Council on March 17. “We may have internal differences,” he said, “but we have a united external policy.”—(A. and N.Z.).

SOCIALIST DEMAND. CHINESE INDEPENDENCE. PARIS, February 13. The executive ef the Socialist International, Mr. A. Henderson presiding, passed a resolution demanding tho recall of foreign troops and warships, and th© abolition of foreigners’ extra territorial privileges in China in favour of the absolute sovereignty of the Chinese people.—(A. and N.Z.). SAILED FOR CHINA. MALTA., February 13. The aircraft-carrier Argus and the cruiser Dauntless h«;ve sailed for China. (A. and N.Z.).