TENSION DIMINISHED

CHIANG AND COMMUNISTS

NEW YORK, August 18. The tension between the Chungking Government and the Communists has eased as preparations are completed for the surrender of all Japanese forces in China on Tuesday, says a message from Chungking. The Communist leader Mao Tze-tung, after two days of apparent defiance, is reported to have agreed to send representatives to Chungking to discuss with President Chiang Kai-shek outstanding issues between the regimes.

An earlier report said that the Communist military commander, General Chu-teh, defying President Chiangs instruction not to attack or disarm Japanese troops, had issued, orders to Lieutenant-General Okaniura, the Japanese commander in China, that all Japanese forces except jthose surrounded by the Kuomintang armies must surrender to the Communists, and hand over .their planes and warships. The Communists also demanded that President Chiang Kai-shek should release Chang Hsueh-liang, the "Young Marshal," who has been detained ever since he and -the Communists held Chiang hostage for 12 days in 1936. •It is unofficially reported that Chinese underground forces allied to the Chungking Government have seized several airfields round Shanghai and Nanking and prepared them _ for American planes transporting Chinese occupation troops to key northern cities in China. When the Chinese Ist Army marches into Canton it will formally accept the surrender of the Japanese in south China, thereby liberating all of occupied south China, including Hainan Island, the Luichow Peninsula, and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, President Chiang has ordered General Okamura to send surrender envoys to the American air base at Chihkiang. Okamura telegraphed a reply agreeing to send his chief of staff. General Hasijimaj, and deputy chief of» staff, General Kiyoshi, to arrange the surrender. A correspondent of the Associated Press says that the newly-appointed Mayor of Canton, Vice-Admiral Chan Chak, will be among the Chinese representatives accepting the formal surrender in south China. Chan was the hero of the Christmas Day escape in 1941 of British officers from Hong Kong.

The Central Government now controls the Peking radio station. The Domei agency says that at Shanghai the local Kuomintang has begun reconstruction activities.