New Britain herald., 1927-02-24
MORE TROOPS FOR
 SHANGHAI DEFENSE
Thousand Native Soldiers Are
 Rushed Into War Zone
STRIKE IS NOW HALTED
Scores Of Workers Return and Exc cutioners are Called off Their Jobs-Reports of Looting Trickle Into City.

Jobs-Reports of Looting Trickle
 Into City.
 Shanghai, Feb. 24.- IR - One thousand Shantung troops arrived here tonight from Ranking. Their final destination Is believed to be Sungkiang. where the Cantonese are expected to attack next in their drive on Shanghai.
 These are the first northern troops to arrive in the. Picking regimes program for assisting Mar shal Sun Chuang- Fang in defense of the city.
 Locally foreign authorities were taking every precaution for defense of the international settlement and the ranks Of foreign defenders quartered in the settlement and aboard ships in the river were being steadily augmented. Tension relaxed in the French settlement.
 All available foreign forces, how ever, were held in readiness in the French section.
 Truce in Strike
 A truce was declared In the con- flict between the nationalist labor in Shanghai and the tottering regime of Marshal Sun Chuan-Fang to- night.
 Simultaneous proclamations sent scores of thousands of workers back to their jobs and called off the exe- cutioners of General u Pao-Chang, Shanghai defense commissioner, who | beheaded 100 or more agitators ] d. ring the five days walkout which 1 involved more than 100000 Chinese
 The strike began to peter out at once. Strikers thronged back tc their work. partly because of lack oi funds and partly because of the at nosphere of terrorism which has hung over the native city and even penetrated the foreign settlements since the strike started.
 30 Are Kidnapped Although nothing official was ob- tairable to verify the report it was dStllS penetrated the French concession and kidnapped at least 30 members of the Kuomintang (Cantonese party) agitators who were holding a meeting there this evening. A few kidnapings also were reported from the international settlements but this likewise could not be confirmed.
 Those kidnapped were taken to General Lis headquarters and their fate is unknown.
 100 Are Executed One of the proclcmations, issued by General Ii, In which he revoked orders for the execution of strike agitators now being held, admits the shootings and beheadings carried out by his decree during the last five days have totalled 100, half of which were in public. Foreign officials be- lieve at least 100 more were executed in the military enclosures of de- fense authorities.
 The General Labor Union issued the other proclamation in which its officials announced they had taken steps with a view to ending the strike for the time being" The la- borites pointed out, however, that the present action was only a truce and that they expected to strike again when the time is ripe. This was taken to mean that they would act when the military situation be- comes more definitely favorable to- ward the nationalists.
 Looting Reported
 Meanwhile, disquieting reports reached here from Sunchkiang, 2S miles south of Shanghai, where the broken army of Marshal Sun has taken a position for last stand against the approaching Cantonese. The reports said Marshal Suns fore es were footing the rice and silk shops there and that many of the soldiers had been executed by their own leaders in an effort to maintain discipline ana face the southern ad- vance.
 Troops of General Chang Tsung- Chang, Shantung leader who yester- day took over Ranking. the provin- cial capital. preparatory to sending troops to Sungkiang to reinforce Marshal Suns broken war machine, were pouring across the Yangtze river from Ranking. occupying Chin kiang, Changchow and other points as they moved southward toward the enemy.
 Marshal Sun, who was reported In Ranking, has sent his family to Tientsin.
 If the disintegration of Marshal Suns forces around Sungkiang con- tinues, the situation may become 8 race between the Shantung and na- tionalist forces for the possession of Shanghai.