CO129-520-1 Chinese situations 20-12-1929 - 27-1-1931 — Page 21

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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.

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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.