UPRISING IN FORMOSA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25148, 1 April 1947, Page 7

UPRISING IN FORMOSA

MEASURES TAKEN BY CHINESE AMERICAN JOURNALIST’S ACCOUNT (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SHANGHAI, March 30. John W. Powell, the only American correspondent who has been able to visit Formosa since the uprising began in February, has reported that the Chinese authorities suppressed the demonstrations by a reign of terror probably unequalled in the history of the Kuomintang Government of China. Mr Powell, writing in the "China Weekly Review,” of which he is editor, said that Chinese Government troops perpetrated some of the most inhuman and most unimaginable atrocities against Formosans who had rioted against an oppression far worse than that suffered at the hands of the Japanese. After the rioting began. Government troops sent out flying squads of troops who fired machine-gun bullets into every group they met, causing deaths conservatively estimated at 5000. General Chen, the Chinese Governor, then promised to accept reforms, but he used the truce period to reinforce his troops, who then subjected Taikoku to a five-day blood bath. Mr Powell concludes: “The rebellion is quelled, but there is little hope that anything can be done to save Formosa economically or politically for China.” Foreigners who have returned to China from Formosa estimate that Chinese troops and police killed at least 10,000 Formosans. They described the killings as completely unjustified in view of the peaceful nature of the demonstrations.

The Minister of National Defence (Mr Pai Chung-hai), broadcasting from Formosa, declared that more than 1000 Chinese civil servants and their dependants from the mainland were killed or injured in the Formosan riots, which began on February 28. He said that the rioters occupied at least six towns, but peace and order had been restored and the striking workers had returned to their jobs.