澳洲報刊有關桂係報導選(7)

澳洲報刊有關桂係報導選(7)

【說明：抗戰初期在五台山上的抗日部隊中，活躍著一支婦女“敢死營”。初看起來，這似乎是中共組織的一支遊擊隊，但下麵的這篇報導則說，這支婦女“敢死營”的骨幹，是由在廣西受過初級軍事訓練的前廣西女警人員組成。真相如何，尚有待於檔案資料的發掘以證實之。】

WOMEN'S ”DEATH BATTALION” - GUERILLAS IN CHINA
JAPAN WANTS CONTROL IN SHANGHAI

GOLD SENT TO RUSSIA

"The Argus" Independent Cable Service

LONDON, Friday.

    A successful guerrilla campaign by a "death battalion" of women commanded by China's Joan of Arc; a tense position created by Japanese demands for the complete control of the municipal council of Shanghai; and the shipment in three aeroplanes of £2,000,000 worth of bar gold to buy planes and arms from Russia.

    These were the highlights of today's story of the Sino-Japanese war. Japanese assertions that Russia is aiding China are apparently borne out by the fact that the Chinese leader (General Chiang Kai-shek) is buying huge quantities of arms of all kinds from Moscow.

    In Paris it has been suggested that the Japanese Prime Minister (Prince Konoye) may yield his place to the hot-headed Minister for the Interior (Admiral Suetsugu), who recently said that Britain must be prevented from coming to China's aid, even at the cost of war. His sentiments, however, have been denied by the Japanese Foreign Office.

CHINA'S MODERN JOAN OF ARC
    How a "death battalion" of Chinese women, many of whom are cultured girls brought up in ancestral homes, with the traditional pound feet, are fighting the Japanese in North China, has been exclusively revealed to "The Argus" by the commander of the battalion, Chenyin Chen, nicknamed "the modern Hwa Molan," after the Chinese equivalent of Joan of Arc, who fought for 8 years masquerading as a man and replacing her conscript father.

    Chenyin Chen, who is aged 32 years, is a bobbed-haired, wiry, athletic woman, bronzed to the colour of a Red Indian by outdoor life.

"Harassing Trains"
    "My soldiers," she said, "are carrying on a guerrilla war in the Wu Tai Shan sector, south-west of Peiping. They are harassing Japanese supply trains on the Yenwenkwan, Pingy, and Inkwan passes through the Great Wall.

    "The ages of the women's battalion range from 17 years to 40. They dress themselves like Eskimos, and have shown themselves to be tardier than either the Chinese or the Japanese men. Many were formerly policewomen at Kwangsi, where they received an elementary military training.

    "They wear their hair very close-cropped, like men, and all carry rifles and hand grenades, some of them swords as well. They share the front-line dangers with the men, who are greatly heartened, saying pat if women are not afraid why should they be."

    Declaring that Japanese demands or the control of the International settlement have created the most various position in the council's his pry, a high official of the Shanghai municipality points out that Japan is challenging the actual basis of the rights enjoyed by Britain and the Powers in Shanghai.

    "The position is made much graver by the vague legal foundation of the municipal council's only document resembling a charter. This consists of the Shanghai land regulations, which were drawn up in the first half of last century to govern the relations between the Powers interested in the settlement.

    There is no evidence that the Powers ever signed the regulations, and therefore there is no law applicable to a Power which decides to recognise them no longer. Consequently disputes must be settled by negotiation.

    The official said that the Japanese had not demanded increased representation on the council, but had sought (1) the appointment of a Japanese secretary to replace the present American secretary; (2) reorganisation of the settlement police force, the number to be increased; and (3) the appointments of Japanese to control all council departments.

    Acceptance of the Japanese proposals, the official said, would not increase the efficiency of the council, and the language difficulty would be serious.

£2,000,000 in Gold
    A Moscow message says that when three Chinese aeroplanes swooped down on the Moscow airport on Tuesday, soldiers with fixed bayonets rushed up to guard them, and marched beside the airport lorries on to which the planes' cargo was loaded. It was thought that the cargo was ordinary freight, and it has only now been revealed that the Chinese leader (General Chiang Kai-shek) had sent £2,000,000 ( worth of bar gold for the purchase of warplanes and armaments.

    The first consignment of 20 dismantled triple-engined machines will leave Moscow at the weekend, and others will follow. It is stated that the Chinese order includes 10,000 ultra-modern rifles and 100,000 gas masks. These will be transported through Yunnan, via French Indo-China, and through Russia, via Sinkiang.

(Prime Minister May Resign: (White Power "Modification," Page 7)

The Argus, Saturday 8 January 1938, p.1.