NOT YET CIVIL WAR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 46, 4 December 1945, Page 3

NOT YET CIVIL WAR

FIGHTING IN CHINA YENAN, Dec. 2. The Communist Chief-of-Staff General Yeh Ching-Yin) told the correspondent of the American Press that since Japan’s surrender there had been 80,000 casualties in the Communist Nationalist Forces. He estimated the Communist strength at 3,000,000 men and said they could sustain themselves for more than 10 years without military aid from the outside.

General Yeh submitted what he said were captured Government documents ordering wholesale attacks on the Communists. The outlook for peace, though most serious, was not hopeless. They did not yet regard the present fight as a civil war. A total of 144 Nationalist divisions totalling 1,200,000 men were opposing the Communists, the major areas of conflict being Central and South-east Shansi and "Hopei Honan, East Chekiang, South Kiangsi and the South Anhwei Provinces, and also on the Peiping-Suiyan, Peiping-Hankow, Tientsin-Pukow railways extending south,

General Chu-Teh, commander of the Chinese Communist armies, said that the Communists would not oppose the airborne movement of the Nationalist forces across Labning into other sectors of Manchuria. He gave a warning that the Communists could not be responsible for the actions of the Popular Armies.