Hongkong, Feb. 17.
The Hongkong police arrested 54 Communists late last week, most of them refugees from the Hailufeng district, where troops from Canton are zoing to round them up. Most of the Reds lived in quiet surroundings, in order to prevent detection, but, due to the effective work of the police, nearly all their secret abodes were visited, and much Communist literature was found.
'The Communists are' fomenting' trouble' in different places in the province, and if troops are sent out from Canton to suppress them, they will attempt another coup d'état. Canton, which, if it succeeds will bbe more bloody and destructive than the last. They always are looking for another opportunity to create trouble when the city is garrisoned by new soldiers. At least ten Comnyunists are executed in Canton yet their numbers appear inexhaustible. From several—arrested here, it is learned that there are at least 30,000 Communists. in Canton, most of whom are idlers, unemployed, or strikers in the Inst boycott against Hongkong.
Several important Red leaders are aid to be at large in Hongkong, and the police are on the watch for them, Nanking ©. Kuangsi Having suffered several defeats and heavy losses of men, Generals Chang Fa-kuei and Huang Chie hsiung, commanders of the "Iron sides"' secretly have returned to Hongkong for a rest. It seems that. the struggle between General Li Chi-hsin, lender of the new Kuangsi clique, and General Chiang Kai-shek, te hold Canton. is on in real earnest, Chang Fa-kuei, it is understood, is waiting in Hongkong: for orders from the Nanking commander-in-chief, other military commanders _with Chiang Kai-shek are Fang Ting-ying, former dean of the Whampoa Military Academy, who has soldiers on the Kiangsi-Kuangtung border, and Chien Ta-chun, who only recently severed his connexion with General Li-Chiksin and has moved his troops outside Kuangtung, in order to render effective assistance to Chiang Kui-shek. Another adherent of the Nanking warlord is General Chen Ming-chu, who recently returned from Swatow to Canton. He absolutely opposes any hostile attitude towards Chiang, either by the press or the Provincial Kuomintang. At. present, the out: ward feeling between Canton and Nanking is friendly, but the undercurrent is serious.
Chien Ta-chun, Chen Ming-chu, and Chang Fa-kuei all are support ers of the Nanking military chief, ut Li Chichsin was sufficiently shroved and versatile to make Chen Ming-chu and Chien Ta-chun fight against Chang Fa-kuei, Chang' "Tronsides" consisted of about 45,- 000 officers and men just prior to their evacuation from Canton, but now his total forces number only 20,000. Chien and Chen now realize that they have been tools of Li hain in fighting their colleague. Chien already has left Kuangtanj while Chen proposes to increase his Forces, which now consist of not. more than 10,000 men.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.