Protest Against Arrival of Large Quantity of Munitions Gen. Chien Ta-chun, Commissioner of Gendarmerie, is making inquiries regarding a report which has come to his notice that Gen, Liu Hsiang, former Tupan of Szechuan, has ordered a large quantity of arms and ammunition from abroad, most ud ammunition from abroad, which have arrived in Shanghai' on a German merchant vessel.
From the report appearing in the vernacular press on July 17, Ge Liu, desirous of expanding his military influence, last year sent a number of his subordinates, most of whom were returned students from Europe, to the Continent with large sum of money to buy as many rifles and as much ammuni-jon as they possibly could, Dur 1 December, these men left Sze~ chuan secretly and they succeeded in making their purchases.
'A consignment of some 9,500 rifles, many machine guns and 3,000,000 rounds of ammunition Iued_at approximately $1,000,000 and packed in G71 cases Rave.arrived in Shanghai for trans-shipment to Szechuan, Hearing of this, Szechuanese residents in Shanghai at once sent a. petition to Gen. Chien asking him to confiscate the munitions. They say that, during the past few years, their home province has been suffer: ing most severely as a result. of civil warfare and banditry. Gen. Liu Hsiang, therefore, they say, should not: import any more arms for make preparations for furt strife, especially in view of the fact that the Nationalist Government has ordered the disbandment of all superfluous forces. Gen, Lin's action, therefore, is in. direct contra vention to the Government's policy and is a breach of the military law. He is, they allege, apparently in league with the penalist countries and his sole aim to promote further civil warfare. Gen. Liv, they say in conclusion, has continually "squeezed" money from the people under the pretext of supporting his large army but yet he has money enough to. buy new arms and ammunition. They therefore ask that the arms should Gen, Chien, in addition to ordering his subordinates to investigate, has submitted a report to the Mu.
tions. tary Council and asked for instruc
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.