NEW OFFENSIVE IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25129, 10 March 1947, Page 7

NEW OFFENSIVE IN CHINA

COMMUNISTS NEAR TSINGTAO

HEAVY ATTACK NORTH OF PORT

(Rec. 11 p.m.) NANKING, March 8. The Chinese Communist forces are reported to be pushing a determined new offensive close to Tsingtao, in Shantung Province, and Government accounts of the fighting indicate that the overland • approach to Tsingtao is already almost cut. An unofficial account says that 10,000 Communists have moved to toe base of the Lao-Shan Peninsula, on which Tsingtao is situated, and are heavily attacking Tsimo, 24 miles north of the port. The Government applied stringent emergency measures, including a 10 p.m. curfew, as crowds of refugees moved into Tsingtao. United States naval and marine forces are stationed in Tsingtao, where the naval forces have been training Chinese sailors. The Government authorities have expressed confidence that they can hold Tsingtao, Avhrch is mainly defended by the 54th Army. General Wang Yao-Pu is reported to be rushing reinforcements to Tsingtao from central Shantung. Railway traffic from Tsingtao is running only as far as Kiacnow, 10 miles to the north-west.

The Chinese Central News Agency said that the Communist forces had broken into Ilaomi, 62 miles northwest of Tsingtao. Dispatches from Manchuria report that the Communists are evacuating women and children from Harbin. The Government Army newspaper, “Peace Daily,” said that Government forces have crowed the Sungari river and advanced up the Changchun railway to a point 69 miles south of Harbin.

"With Government troops concentrating at Ichuan, 50 miles away, Yenan is preparing for an all-out attack,” reports Tillman Durdin, correspondent at Yenan. 7A large-scale evacuation of supplies and all non-essential personnel is under way. “Material and human resources are being mobilised for resistance to the expected Government attempt to occupy the capital of Communist China. It is estimated that the population has been reduced from 50,000 to 15,000. Schools, factories, hospitals and many Government offices have already moved away. “Yenan is dispersing into the Com-munist-controlled northern Shensi hinterland, and organisations. and families will settle down in the huts and coves of many small villages. It is believed that even if the Kuomintang troops reach Yenan they cannot spread out sufficiently to reach toe hideouts of Yenan’s institutions and people. “The invaders will find the countryside mobilised against them. Wells will be choked with debris, villages stripped of grain and most of the ablebodied peasants organised as partisans to harass their advance with sniper’s rifles and thickly sown home-made land mines. Eighth Route Army regulars will co-operate with home defence units."

General Tang-Po, commander of the Nanking garrison, has been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Ist Army Group headquarters at Suchow Pro-

The Punjab authorities have extended precautions and imposed a cutfew in the towns of Ferozepore and Gujranwala. The "Daily Mail” correspondent at Amritsar reports that for the second time in 24 hours armed raiders attacked the Peshawar-Bombay express. Four hundred men, believed to be Moslems, boarded the train to-day at Chdklala and attacked Sikh passengers while the train was in motion. The raiders severely wounded seven Sikhs, two of whom, including a woman,'died later. Armed guards are now to accompany all trains. "A fanatical mob attacked the Pesha-war-Bombay express while it was standing at the Taxila station north of Rawalpindi" says the Lahore correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” ‘Many passengers were injured and at least three killed. The Government has sent a relief train." The District Magistrate of the Delhi Province aas banned for one month the carrying of firearms, lathis, and weapons of any kind within the urban area of Delhi. “Thoughts are to-day turned towards the Punjab, where the Moslem League’s theory of Pakistan or a separate State for the Moslem majority

provinces, is being put to the test amid much bloodshed and communal conflict,” says toe New Delhi correspondent of “The Times." “Lahore ana Amritsar are still the main storm centres with five other towns, including Multan and Rawalpindi, in a highly inflammable state. “So far trouble has not spread to the countryside and there is no indication that massacres like those that occurred in East Bengal and Bihar are imminent, but the danger remains in spite of appeals for a peaceful settlement from leaders who until yesterday were whipping up the emotions of

“If peace is restored without largescale bloodshed it will be due to the innate good sense of the Punjabi peasant, who whatever his religion, knows that other communities can give a Sood account of themselves and that le numbers are so balanced that no single community can have things all its own way, and second, thg stoutheartedness and loyalty of the Punjab police force which so far has stood the strain and taken effective deterrent action. But the prospect of a real agreement being reached between the parties remains remote as long as the Moslem League is committed to its full Pakistan policy.”