BLOCKADE OF QUEMOY

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28700, 25 September 1958, Page 13

BLOCKADE OF QUEMOY

Position Said To Be Improving

TAIPEH, September 24. Admiral Harry Felt, Com-mander-in-Chief of the American forces in the Pacific, said today that the blockade situation in the Communist-besieged Quemoy Islands was improving. “We are not over-optimistic, but we also are not pessimistic,’’ he said. Speaking to newspapermen at the airport before he left for Okinawa, Admiral Felt said the Nationalist President, Marshal Chiang Kai-shek, was “in good spirit and a great leader.” Admiral Felt, in a series of conferences with Nationalist leaders, has discussed the current Formosa Straits situation, according to Nationalist sources. Training and re-equippirig of Nationalist armed forces also was discussed. The . most modern American weapons would be handed to the Nationalists, the sources said, but they would not specify what these weapons were. Nationalist Air Force men will shortly take the air in supersonic F-100 jet fighters. There has been Wo announcement on vhether the Chinese also are being trained in missile warfare, although American Nike anti-aitcraft and Matador ground-to-ground missiles are in position on Formosa. “We now have a better understanding of each other’s policy,” Admiral Felt said. “The Americans and Nationalists are getting closer together and there is no misunderstanding between us.” Shortly after Admiral Felt left for Okinawa, General Lawrence Kuter, commander of the United States Air Force in the Pacific, also left for Okinawa. He had inspected American Air Force bases on the island and joined in the talks which Admiral Felt had witß Nationalist leaders.

Question Asked In Canberra

CANBERRA, September 24. The . acting-Minister for External Affairs. Sir Philip Mcßride, declined in the House of Representatives today to give an assurance that Australia would take ar initiative in asking the General Assembly of the United Nations to discuss the crisis in the Formosa Strait. The Leader of the Opposition. Dr Evatt, asked Sir Philip McBride whether in view of the actions of certain nations in the dispute between Communist and Nationalist China about sovereignty over the offshore islands. Australia would report the situation to the General Assembly and seek an order for a cease fire.

Dr. Evatt said that he believed that, if sought, such an order would be given, and that it would result in easing, at least for the present, the anxiety which the situation was creating. Sir Philip Mcßride said that discussions on the question were now proceeding at Warsaw. Dr. Evatt: And shooting is proceeding. too. Sir Philip Mcßride: .1 believe that it is best to allow those discussions, to proceed to conclusion before further action is taken.

The American envoy at the Chinese-American Far East talks in Warsaw was pressing for a Formosa cease-fire as the primary condition for further negotiations, the Peking newspaper. “Ta King Pao.” said today. “This is a diplomatic booby trap designed to coerce the Chinese people to give up their sovereign rights over Formosa and the offshore islands.” the newspaper said in a leading article quoted by the New China News Agency. “It shows that the United States is using the Warsaw talks to pull the wool over the world’s eyes. “The United States wants to use the talks merely as a means of pressing the Chinese people for a cease-fire as a smokescreen for an expansion of the United States aggression against China,” the Peking newspaper said