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21
state of general disorder.
It would probably be
no exaggeration to say that the influence of the
Cantonese troops is limited to the Wuchow and Wat
Lam prefectures. Many prefectures in the interior
are still in the hands of junior Kwangsi Generals.
Kuei Lin, Liuchow and Pinglo are still held by Wong
Yuk-cho, at the Western port of Nanning prefecture
by Hon Choi-fung. Some detachments of Yunnanese
troops it is understood have managed to proceed as
far as Lung Chuan and have expelled the communists
there. But this is not so much a move of political
or military importance as calculated to assist
Yunnan in paving a free way for her opium traffic to Kwangtung via Nanning.
4.
-
In Canton itself the talk of the town is of
S the sensational assasination of General Lui Woon-yim
the Military Governor of Kwangsi on the 14th of June
in the New Asia Hotel by a member of his bodyguard.
His defection last year during the Nanking-Kwangsi
war was, it is said, the principal cause of the downfall
of the Kwangsi party. According to press reports
the murderer had been bought by Pei Chung-hsi.
But some people are inclined to doubt the truth of this
statement for Lui had a negligible political following
and was of no potential danger to the Kwang si faction,
while if Pei Chung-hsi had been anxious to arrange his
removal on personal grounds, as the murderer had been
a member of the victim's bodyguard for the last five
years, the deed could have been perpetrated far more
easily before deceased's return from Kwangsi two months
ago.