On Thursday, January 10th, two very. important Manchurian Officers, Yang
Yu-ting and Chang Yin-huai, were summarily • executed on the allegation that they had conspired with General .Pai Chung-hsi to seize Manchuria. The Times says that when Yang Yu-ting -came to Peking with his chief, the late Chang Tso-lin, he made a deep impression and greatly helped to maintain public confidence. He had remarkable energy and physical power, and his aptitude and frankness in dealing With liolitital business placed him above all hiS" colleagues. " In Yang Yu-ting one saw the embodiment of all the brains and driving force of the Mukden military party." Presumably when Chang Hsueh-liang (who succeeded his father, Chang Tso-lin, as War Lord of Manchuria) discovered that Yang Yu-ting was opposed to-the policy of letting Manchuria be absorbed into Nationalist China he thought that he had better be " removed.".. Another explanation is that Yang Yu-ting was simply the victim of rival officers, who perceived that if he was not killed he would rule them all. Yang Yu-ting as a practical man of affairs knew that the commercial domination of Japan in Manchuria could not be ended, and he therefore favoured a definite understanding with Japan. His death will probably be for this reason an embarras- ment to Japanese policy.
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