COMMUNISTS IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24742, 6 December 1945, Page 5

COMMUNISTS IN CHINA

Separate Regime Not Planned

POLICY STATED IN YENAN (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) <Rec. J9 p.m.) YENAN (North-west » China), Dec. 5. Failure of the negotiations with the Kuomintang will not result in the Chinese Communists establishing a separate central government for the areas they dominate, according to Mr Liu Chi, a high-ranking member of the powerful Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party. Mr Liu added that if the forthcoming Com-munist-Kuomiqtang discussions failed to produce • agreement. Communist policy would be to continue the existing "local democratic government" over the Communist controlled'areas. Mr Liu emphasised that it was Communist policy to work for a peaceful settlement of the differences with the Kuomintang on a national basis. For this, reason the Communists would not establish a rival central government. Mr Liu, who is considered Jo be one of the keenest political thinkers in the Chinese Communist Party, said he was acting as spokesman for Mao Tse-tung. chairman of the Communist Central Committee.

The following significant points were made by Mr Liu:— (1) The Communist Party's programme for China at present was democratic capitalist development based on State and private co-opera-tive enterprise. (2) Soviet Russian Communism was not the model for the present Chinese Communist policies. (3) Their programme was comparable to political and economic concept? in the United States in the time of Jefferson and Lincoln. The Chinese Communist Party maintained no liaison \m' the Russian Communist Party or other foreign Communist parties. (4) Considering it to be true that Communism does not suit China in its present stage of political and economic development, the Chinese Communist Party would oppose any party attempting to introduce Communism of the Russian pattern into China. (5) The end of the Japanese war did not mean any change of political and economic programmes in the Communist controlled areas of China.

TJ.S. POLICY IN CHINA

“INTERNAL UNITY AND STABILITY”

LETTER FROM BYRNES TO CONGRESSMAN

WASHINGTON, December 4

Mr C. P. Anderson, a Democrat Congressman, has inserted in the Congressional records the contents of a letter from the United States Secretary of State (Mr James Byrnes), replying to a request for a statement of policy towards China following Major-General Patrick J. Hurley's resignation as United States Ambassador.

Mr Byrnes wrote: "We favour the creation of a strong, united, democratic China which will contribute to peace and stability in the Far East and which will enable China effectively to support the United Nations Organisation. We deem it desirable and essential that China should solve her internal troubles. While we recognise this as a task which China must carry out largely through her Own efforts, we seek by all appropriate, practicable means to pursue such policies and action as will best facilitate the achievement of internal unity and stability. "Among the medhs to this' end we propose, with due regard for the realities of the internal situation in China, to assist to rehabilitate her devastated economy and develop a higher standard of living for her masses. "We seek to enhance China's international status, as was evidenced at the San Francisco Conference. "Collaboration between China, Britain, America, and Russia is essential to the maintenance of peace and security in the Far East. Collaboration among these, and other peaceloving nations should extend to all legitimate fields of economic and other endeavour on the basis of equality of opportunity and respect for national sovereignty. We hope China will further such collaboration by instituting and carrying out the reasonable policies that lie before her. "During the war it was our policy to assist China to the greatest possible extent in the joint prosecution of hostilities against Japan by credits and grants of civilian and military lendlease supplies, the training and equipping of a limited number of Chinese military units, and the utilisation in China of our air forces and other related activities. Since the capitulation of Japan we have been assisting in effecting the surrender, disarmament, and repatriation of the very substantial Japanese armed forces in China"

CHINESE FAILURE TO DISTRIBUTE FOOD

WARNING BY UNRRA OFFICIAL

SHANGHAI, December 4. Criticising China's failure to transport food to the interior, the DeputyDirector, of UNRRA (Mr R. F. Hendnckson) said that curtailment of supplies Would* be necessary unless the Chinese developed a swift distribution system. He added that supplies were piling up in Shanghai warehouses, but starving people even 500 miles away were not supplied.

TIDAL WAVE IN KARACHI AREA

DEATHS PUT AT ' 4000 LONDON, December 4. Four thousand people are believed to have been killed and 40,000 made homeless by the tidal wave which struck a 100-mile coastal belt west of Karachi on November 28. This news was brought by a party of Congress Party relief workers who have just returned to Karachi from the scene of the disaster.

The party's report said that two villages were wiped out and seven others suffered heavy casualties. One vanished with the hill on which it was standing. . The coast is now strewn with wreckage, with corpses being washed up daily.

It was dark when the tidal wave struck on November 28, which added horror to the confusion. Thousands of pebbles shot into the air like volleys of bullets. Villagers snatched at tree tops as they were tossed about in the mighty rush of water. Some who took refuge in boats and on rafts were swept far out to sea. Many were killed while asleep. An eye-witness said that the first sign was when the sky in the direction of the sea changed to a reddish colour about 3 a.m., after which a column of fire shot up from the water There was a deafening crash and, before the alarm could be given, the gigantic wave rushed toward the coast.

Motion of Censure.—"Both the Government and Opposition are keyed up for the debate on the Opposition's motion of censure, which comes up tomorrow afternoon," says the diplomatic correspondent of "The Times." "Govment and Opposition supporters alike, summoned by the Whips, will be in their places for the division to-morrow night. The number of members who will be able to speak will not represent more than a quarter of those axious to participate in the debate."— London, December 4.