CIVIL WAR IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25135, 17 March 1947, Page 8

CIVIL WAR IN CHINA

CHIANG ATTACKS COMMUNISTS NO HOPE OF POLITICAL SETTLEMENT (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) NANKING, March 15. Marshal Chiang Kai shek addressing the Kuomintang’s executive committee said hopes for a settlement of China’s civil war by political means had been shattered and the armed activities of the Communists in rebellion to frustrate national unification were spreading wider every day. While the people of the entire country were demanding stability the Communists were deliberately widening their sphere of disturbance. The Government, to safeguard the unity of the nation and the security of the people, could not watch the spread of that disturbance without taking measures to suppress it. Marshal Chiang urged the committee to adopt resolutions ending the party’s “political tutelage” period of Government control and inaugurate constitutional rule. “From now onwards responsibility for the State will devolve on the shoulders of the various parties and the people of the entire country,” added Marshal Chiang. “Hereafter we will do our duty and enjoy our rights in the same manner as will other parties.”

Sixty thousand Communists are reported to have surged back across the Sungari river in Manchuria and are engaging Government forces near Tehhwei, 52 miles north-west of Changchun. The Communists had regrouped after the defeat which the Government claimed on March 5 had been imposed upon them. In Shantung Province 70,000 Communists are reported to have captured the important town of Kiao-sien, 25 miles north-west of Tsingtao on the vital Tsingtao-Tsinan railway. Tsingtao is now virtually cut off by land. The Communists’ objective in taking Kiao-sien is probably to maintain an avenue of escape across the railway. The Communists foresee the possibility of being herded into the Shantung Peninsula because large Government forces are coming up from south-west Shantung.