Army Appeal To Chinese

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31439, 4 August 1967, Page 9

Army Appeal To Chinese

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) HONG KONG, Aug 3. The “Liberation Army Daily,” the official Communist Chinese military newspaper, today Recused rebellious commanders of encouraging strikes in industrial areas and inciting peasants to “storm into the cities,” United Press International reported.

The newspaper, controlled by factions backing Mao Tse-

tung in the Chinese power struggle, appealed to the “broad masses of the people to hold firm to their production posts” and urged Army units to support them. The policy statement, broadcast by Peking Radio, specifically mentioned the important industrial city of Wuhan in central China as an area of unrest. The statement made it clear that the call for social order and increased emphasis on production applied to wide areas of the mainland. Propaganda outlets loyal to Mao claimed earlier this week that Maoists had crushed a rebellion in Wuhan led by dissident Army officers, but statements siince

then have indicated the revolt was continuing. Peking announced last Sunday that it had launched an intense purge of the Army. Today’s statement said antiMaoists in Wuhan “are fanatically struggling through their pre-death finale.” Red Guard Attack Travellers arriving in Hong Kong yesterday and today from the mainland were quoted by the Hong Kong press as witnessing bitter clashes between Maoists and factions supporting President Liu Shao-chi.

They told of an attack by 20,000 Red Guards on railway works on Hunan province in south-central China in which more than 300 persons were killed and wounded and the train service on the line between Canton and Hankow paralysed. Travellers said the fighting began On July 29 and continued for three days.

Chinese sources in Hong

Kong said clashes in Hunan, Shangtung and Kwangtung provinces and the cities of Shanghai and Wuhan indicated China was in a state of anarchy, the Associated Press reported. The anti-Communist newspaper “Ming-Pao,” quoting visitors from Canton, said many storage houses were occupied by anti-Maoists after severe fighting between Red Guards and train workers.

The official New China News Agency, in a despatch from Peking, said the recent publication of a collection of quotations by Mao Tse-tung on people’s war had been hailed “with revolutionary enthusiasm by People’s Liberation Army men and civilians throughout China.”