THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 29, 1939
Fight At Sea Being Waged In Deadly Earnest
PRIME MINISTER'S
SURVEY OF THE SITUATION: TRIBUTE TO "RAWALPINDI"
London, To-day.
MR. CHAMBERLAIN was loudly cheered on rising
JAPANESE
in the House of Commons yesterday for his first STRIKING
speech in the new session of Parliament.
The Prime Minister first dealt with the Parliamen- NORTH FROM
tary process with regard to the foreshadowed es- tablishment of a select committee on national expenditure and said that under present circum- stances deliberation would be confined to mat- ters necessary for the effective prosecution of the war.
NANNING
Kwong Chow Wan, To-day.
TWO GERMAN
STEAMERS CAPTURED
Paris, To-day.
Capture of two more German merchant vessels by the French Navy is announced in an official communique.
One of the vessels was of 6,000 tons and the other of 4,500 tons. They had apparently left a Span- Ish port in which they had sought refuge at the outbreak of war, in
desperate attempt to through the blockade-Reuter.
steal
a
Following the occupation RAWALPINDI
of Nanning, the Japanese forces
One column
northwards to Wuyuan and another
is advancing directly LANDED
north-eastwards to Pingyang,
with
The war as it was now being conducted had been des-in ces are reported striking SURVIVORS
cribed as a siege war and as far as land opera- north-east. tions were concerned that was an appropriate term but on the sea the fight was being waged in deadly earnest. Nobody, he said, could read the, thods to changed conditions account of the heroic action of the sorts of fancy plans were advocated but all naval reservists and pensioners manned the Rawalpindi against over-
who in the last war and disillusionment
followed said the Premier. whelming odds without deep emotion.
These men must have known as soon as they sighted the enemy that there was no chance for them but they had no thought of surrender and they fought their guns until they could fight no more and then went to their deaths, thereby car. rying on the great traditions of the Royal Navy.
ex-
TWO-WAY BLOCKADE Regarding the order-in-council placing an embargo on German ports, Mr. Chamberlain recognised that inconvenience and perhaps loss would be inflicted on neutrals but these mea- sures for helping to bring our effort to a successful conclusion may be well worth some sacrifice on the part of neutrals.
We intend to do our best for the cause with the least possible In- Jury to neutrals consistent with our purpose of stopping German ex- ports.
1
We had better win the war first after.-Reuter. whilst not forgetting what will come
GERMANY WITHOUT ANY CODE OF HONOUR
the object of converging on Liuchow- fu.
are acting as guides to the Japanese Chinese reports state that bandits
troops.
London, To-day. Eleven survivors of the armed mer- been, landed chant cruiser Rawalpindi have now in Scotland. Ten of them were in a ship's boat which was found by the S.S. Chitral The was found clinging to an boat, to which he had
greatly handicapped by the destruc-eleventh
The Japanese progress is, however, tion of all highways, delaying supplies overturned from the coast and also preventing clung for 23 hours. the moving up of heavy artillery.
The city has not yet been cleared of Chinese snipers, who have accounted officers. for a number of Japanese soldiers and
"FIGHTING RAGING"
Mr. Chamberlain said the sals Order-in-Council just published Repri- contained measures the Allies were compelled to take as a result of num- erous indefensible acts in contraven- tion of the pledged word, taken by
Kweilin, To-day. an enemy government which seem-gions north and north-east of Nan- Fighting is raging in the hilly re- ed have no code of honour and broke ning every convention on
on the the
north flimsiest Watkiang River.
bank of the pretext if it thought it served the Nazi purpose.
According to a message from the front, several assaults by. the Japan- ese yesterday were repulsed. Cen- tral News,
The British Government was do- ing its best to cause the least pos- sible injury. For example, the Or- der-in-Council purposely postponed the coming into effect of the mea- sures till December 4-a fortnight
after his original announcement to give neutrals an opportunity.
The date, December 4, was purpose- ly fixed in order to give them ample | prepare. time to make preparations.
LABOUR AIMS
reached
to
the
Turning to events in the air, Mr. Chamberlain referred to the re-
Premier thought the House cent speech of Major Attlee, the lead-
would welcome the announcement that er of the Labour Opposition, who had agreement had been said that Imperialism must be aban- Ottawa on the main principles and in doned but did not say what country methods of the great international he had in mind as practising Imper-scheme for the training of pilots lalism to-day.
the scheme His Majesty's If Imperialism means the assertionment regarded as of the utmost value Govern- of racial superiority, suppression of and importance to British mastery in the political and economic life of the air.
Eritish Wireless. other peoples, exploitation of the re- sources of other countries for the be- neft of the Imperialist country, then I say that these are not characteristic
of this country but are characteristic of the present administration of Ger-
many.
Whatever may have been the case in the past we have no thought of treating the British Empire on the lines that I have described.
ACCEPTED DOGMA For years it has been the accepted dogma that the administration of the Colonial Empire is a trust which has to be conducted primarily in the interests of the country concerned.
We have already undertaken to give free access to the markets of materials from many of our most Important colonies. The League of Nations as
an in- strument for preserving peace
has been a failure but its work in other directions has invaluable scope which is not sufficiently recognised.
Mr. Chamberlain said that he would like to see that side of the League developed and extended very con- siderably.
FANCY PLANS
We are not so rigid in view that we would refuse to adapt our me.
GERMAN STORY OF RAWALPINDI
Berlin, To-day.
A German communique on the sinking of the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi, sunk by the Deutschland and another ship south of Ice- land, says that the naval en- gagement took place in the fading evening light.
out
The first German burst of shells found their target. Fires then broke until the whole ship was in flaines. Several detonations heard, indicating that ammunition supplies were blowing up,
were
The ship, sank rapidly. All survivors seen by the Ger- man vessels were picked up. They were all Scotsmen. Reuter.
CHINESE STATEMENT
The 10 survivors were frozen and had to be hoisted Chitral by means
on board the of lines over the ship's sides. Reuter.
N.Z. WAR SERVICES SOCIETY
London, To-day,
A New Zealand War Services As- insociation has been formed in London to look after the welfare of all New Zealanders who arrive in Britain to serve with the Army, Navy, Air Force and other services.
Chungking, To-day. Referring to the hostilities Kwangsi, a Chinese military spokes- man declared to-day that while striking back heavily, the Chinese are inducing the enemy to fall into a long corridor between mountain ranges.
The spokesman said that Nanning It will work in conjunction
with was evacuated by the Chinese onthe Royal Empire Society, Y.M.C.A. Sunday morning after three days' and other organizations and will be heavy fighting in the outskirts.
mainly run The spokesman claimed that the Reuter. Japanese rear has been cut. Cen- tral News.
by New
Zealanders.-
STABBING INCIDENT
Suffering from two stab wounds in the back a 28-year-old Chinese, Lau Hung-pui, was admitted to the KowTM loon Hospital last night,
LOCK ROAD THEFT Mr. W. T. Ingram, residing at No. 25, Lock Road, reports that between 10 a.m, and 4:45 p.m. yesterday thief climbed up the drainpipe, en- tered the dining-room and took a rat- It is alleged that Lau was involved tan basket containing clothes and In a fight with another man at No. 16, fountain pen. Later, Mr. Ingram Hamilton Street at 9.30 p.m. The po- found the basket in the backyard.lice are searching for the alleged at- Some of the clothes were left behind. I tacker.
a
EWO PILSNER
New Lighter Brew.
The