CHINESE NATIONAL UNITY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 142, 12 March 1941, Page 8

CHINESE NATIONAL UNITY

Appeal By Chiang ENDING COMMUNIST FRICTION (By } Telegrap-a.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) March 11,<8.35 p.m.) CHUNGKING, March 10. The leader of the' Kuomintang ’ ■ Government, Marslial Chiang Kai-shek, today appealed for national unity for the sake of victory over Japan., Marshal Chiang spoke at the closing session of’the People’s Political Council. ~ The council elected Tung Ti-wu, the Communist leader, as a member though he was not present. This is interpreted by the vernacular Press as a favourable move toward ending the friction between the Nationalist Government and the Chinese Communists. CIVIL WAR FEAR Background Of Dispute With Communists AN ARMY DISSOLVED Tass, official Soviet news agency, reported on January 7 27 in a dispatch

from Chungking that the Chinese Government’s dissolution of its Fourth Army was directed against Communist elements and might lead to civil war in China. The Fourth Army, a Communist ' unit, was broken up and its commander, General Yeh Ting, held for trial after clashes between the Fourth Army and other Chungking Government divisions. Chungking said the . Fourth Army refused to obey orders to move to a new area north of the Yangtze River. The Tass dispatch said the Fourth Army lost 4000 dead and 2000 prisoners in the battle before it was broken up, and reported the Chungking War Office’s charge that the army had failed to obey orders and risen in revolt. Tass continued: — “Representatives of the Fourth Army deny these charges as unfounded, and affirm that the real motive of the attack was the narrow party am bitions of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) generals directed against the Revolutionary patriotic Communist elements in the ranks of the Fourth Army.” Tass said the affairs had caused “great alarm in various patriotic strata of Chinese society.” “These circles,” the dispatch continued, “express the opinion that these events are the beginning of a big operation for the liquidation of not only the Fourth but also the Eighth Army (the original Chinese Commun ist Army). They affirm this would mean the development of a civil war. which could only weaken China.” Explanation By Chiang. Marshal Chiang* Kai-shek said his action in dissolving the Communis! Fourth Army was solely to preserve military discipline and was not • prompted by political considerations: “I exercised Christian forgiveness nnto seventy times seven with the recalcitrant new Fourth Army,” he said “But it continued to give out false re ports vilifying the Central Government and to take arbitrary action til! it was apparent that if the new Fourth Army was unchecked it. would cease to be worthy of the name of the nation. “In China today, there is absolute unanimity of purpose among all armies and the peoples in resistance against , Japan; hence there, is absolutely no ground for disagreement or civil war.’" Earlier negotiations had taken place between Marshal Chiang and the Eighth Route Army. The Eighth Route Army desired to be transferred from the bleak northern wastes of Shansi and Shensi to .somewhere in the Yangtze Valley or Southern China for action against Japanese troops. It is reported that though the Chinese General Staff is well aware of the efficiency of the Eighth Route Army as hit-and-run guerrilla fighters, it believes that - these troops would be useless against Japan’s .. modern army in pitched battles. ; ' Wanted Mass Movement. Also the Eighth Route Army made ns one stipulation of its transfer that its members be allowed to move their • families, universities, schools, training camps, newspapers, governmental and banking institutions. In other words, they wished to be allowed to move from North China to the vastly richer regions to the south and incorporate their new territories into a semiIndependent Communist State. A further demand of Chinese Com munist leaders was that Marshal Chiang convene a national conference during January.’ This demand is said to have been based on the belief that when a conference was called nuttierous delegates at present in Japaneseoccupied territory would be unable to reach. Chungking in time, while the Communist delegates would be there in full force and thus achieve virtual control of the Chinese Government, its policies and its future action. The bolstering of Marshal Chiang’s power by means ,of the American loan and the reopening of the Burma Road caused an abrupt denial of all the Eighth Route Army’s requests. Chiang apparently felt confident of his new po'wer. Chiang’s chief weapon is that he is able to withhold any or all supplies from the Eighth Route Army, since he controls both the Burma Road and the Vladivostok route. The trade agreement with the Soviets specified that the Soviets should not grant any monopolies and that intercountry trade should be carried on on a basis of value provided for value received.