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organized by the Cantonese generals against the
province of Kwangsi.
The supreme command of the
attack on that province has been given to Yu Tsok-p'ak,
who once held high office in Kwangsi, but was expelled
by General Wong Shiu-hung and his colleagues about five years ago, and is now understood to be a loyal servant of Marshal Chiang Kai-shek.
6.
The Shek-tan bridge on the Kowloon-Canton Railway (Chinese section), to which I have already
referred, was wrecked on the 9th May by a party of
soldiers, conveyed to the bridge from the railway
terminus at Canton. These soldiers, under the
command of an officer, were equipped with modern
explosive materials and succeeded in destroying an expansion bearing of one of the hundred foot spans
composing the bridge. Not long afterwards, however, when the first phase of the campaign came to an end,
the Canton authorities themselves requested me to assist in repairing the bridge. I agreed to do this and sent a travelling crane with engineers to Shek-tan for the purpose. The damage was repaired, and slow through trains resumed running on May 21st, and the service of express trains was resumed on the 26th May.
7. It is too early yet to say what the result of the third phase of the civil war between wangtung
and Kwangsi may be. Much depends upon events in
other parts of China, but the fighting still continues, and there has been a very serious setback to trade
and commerce in the Liang Kwang provinces.
the threat of renewed danger from Communism,
1-
Moreover,
brigands