CO129-416 - Public Offices - 1914 — Page 257

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doubtful, but the President is confident that he will completely control Yang-tsze Valley within a month. (End of R.)

(P.) The troops in Kuangsi province are still loyal; they have advanced down the West River and are in touch with the rebel forces at a point 40 miles above Canton,

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No. 107.

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Mr. Alston to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received August 5.)

(No. 296.) Sir,

Peking, July 21, 1913. THE struggle between President Yuan Shih-kai on the one side and the Huang Hsing faction on the other has now materialised in an open rebellion in the Yang-tsze Valley.

In the first week of July the dismissed Governor of Kiangsi, Li Lieh-chun returned to Hukou, took over the forts which command the entrance to the Poyang Lake, and raised the standard of revolt. Vice-President Li Yuan Hung, the Governor of Hupei, who had been entrusted since Li Tutu's dismissal with the additional duties of the Governor of Kiangsi, ordered the 5,000 northern troops who had during the previous weeks been concentrated on the Hupei-Kiangsi border to advance on the Hukou position. The advance of the northerners was opposed by such of the Kiangsi troops as had thrown in their lot with Li Lieh-chun, and an engagement took place at Te An, between Kiukiang and Hukou. The fighting, which lasted from the 12th to the 13th July, would appear to have been of an indecisive nature. Since the above date, the strength of the rebels in Kiangsi has been considerably augmented by the defection from the northern cause of Ou-yang Wu, the military official who had been appointed Protector of Kiangsi on Li Tatu's dismissal. On the 18th July he resigned this post under the Central Government, and declared himself Governor of Kiangsi, to which position he had, he said, been elected by the provincial assembly of that province. The secession of Kiangsi thereby became a fait accompli, and it would appear probable that the entire provincial military forces have ranged themselves in the rebel camp.

According to information received last night, and communicated to you in my telegram of the 21st July, Vice-President Li is hurrying troops down the river to reinforce the 5,000 men mentioned above, and is confident that this combined force will find little difficulty in reducing the Hukou position.

While ex-Tutu Li thus opened the rebel campaign at Hukou, Huang Hsing had proceeded to Nanking. The Kiangsu troops in that place went over to him in a body. The Governor, Cheng Te-chuan, who expressed himself as out of sympathy with the rebellion, was placed under restraint, and a proclamation was issued on the 14th July under his name and seal, declaring Nanking's independence of the Central Government. The Kiangsu troops at Hsuchoufu, situated on the Tien-tsin-Pukow line near the Shantung border, also declared for the Nanking Government, while the soldiers at Chinkiang and Yangchou remained for the moment undecided.

On the 15th the Nanking troops, 7,000 strong, moved north by train to attack the 2,000 loyal troops stationed at Hanchuang on the Shantung frontier. The two forces met at Li-kuo-I, where an engagement was fought on the 16th July. The southern army was said to have been driven back with considerable loss. At this engagement General Chang Huen, of revolution fame, who is stationed at Yenchoufu with an army of 10,000 men, declared his hand by despatching 2,000 of his troops to assist the northerners. Since the 16th July no further fighting has apparently taken place, both sides being engaged in seading reinforcements to the scene of operations.

On the 18th July the troops at Yenchoufu and at Chinkiang definitely threw in their lot with the rebels. On the 19th, 1,200 troops with six machine guns left the latter place and entrained for Shanghai, which is about to become the third field of the operations of the rebel forces. Their objective would appear to be the arsenal, which is held by Admiral Cheng and some 1,300 northern troops. There are in addition several Chinese men-of-war moored in the vicinity. Steps having now been taken to secure the issue to the crews of pay now in arrears, there is reason to believe that these ships will take part in the defence of the arsenal. The Wosung forts have hoisted the rebel flag.

While I am without information of any actual military operations in parts of China other than the above, His Majesty's consular officers report the issue of declarations of independence in the provinces of Kuangtung, Fukien, and Chekiang. The two latter provinces have up to the present shown no signs of wishing to take the

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