A CHINESE ARMY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 63, 14 March 1940, Page 9

A CHINESE ARMY

TACTICS DESCRIBED

GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK

From behind the lines of Japan's in« vading war machine, General Yeh, Ting, Commander of the new Chinese Fourth Army, brings to this remote capital a moving description of !the wayChina is using age-old devices to de,fend its slender hold on freedom, writes a correspondent from Chungking to the "Christian Science Monitor." General Yeh usually is out of reach, and out of sight as he secretly directs his army within territory claimed by the Japanese. In a rare interview he told how his ammunition must be smuggled past vigilant Japanese sentries. With other guerrilla chieftains, his task is to strike swift blows at the invader, and then vanish with his? army into the surrounding countryside. Although :a • comparative newcomer among China's guerrilla leaders, General Yeh has already made a name for himself. His exploits rival those of the veteran Eighth Route Army that surged out of South China in 1932 for the relief of beleaguered Shanghai. The Japanese months ago occupied Shanghai, Nanking, and Tientsin. Yet the reorganised Fourth Army under General Yeh has its base in the border region between Kiangsu and Anhwei, near China's lost capital of Nanking. RAIL TRAFFIC DISRUPTED. On several occasions the Fourth Army has disrupted railway traffic between Nanking and Tientsin. This exploit is the Hiore surprising in view of Japan's nominal occupation of the entire territory from Nanking in central China to Tientsin in the far north. Another, exploit carried out with beguiling secrecy was the stoppage of traffic on the most important railway in Japan's hands. This is. the short line. down the southern bank of the Yangtze River from Nanking to Shanghai. Exploits cheer the guerrilla, soldiers, but they lead a hard life.' Recently General Yeh had to leave his army behind the Japanese outposts, while he hurriedly crossed over to the Chinese capital at Chungking. His funds had been running low. Supplies were not coining through a's they should. His soldiers complained of miserable clothing and poor arms. General Yeh stayed at one of the least pretentious of Chungking's hotels. No sentry guarded his room, and the lowest of hotel boys could have apr prpached him without difficulty. Such accessibility is particularly striking in China, where sentries and guards are everywhere. • The General is a well-built, rather stocky Cantonese. His. black hair, which is cut .short, has a few grey streaks. His eyes are alert and his face smooth, and he looks more like a Cantonese merchant than a guerrilla leader. " : ''.. ; IN THE CANTON COMMUNE. General Yeh commanded the5 troops which participated in the ill-fated Canton Commune, after the failure of which he went into exiled He left both the Communist Party and. the Kuomintang, feeling that neither could succeed in solving China's problems. At the present-time he still does not belong to any political party. After visiting Russia - and • Germany, and travelling through Europe; Yeh settled down in Macao, Portuguese China, and lived quietly until the outbreak of war called him home. The New Fourth. Army has grown, from 10,000 to 30,000, General Yeh said. It has no difficulty in obtainirig recruits. For every rifle many step forward. Furthermore, the army has established a training school for commanders and political workers, which in three or four months trains a class of 500 or 600. After a-political worker is trained, he is assigned' to one of the army units, and is expected to educate his men politically, to teach "them, the meaning of war, to build up their morale, and to see to it that they behave properly towards the populace. The New Fourth Army fights many battles, but few of them are on a large scale. "We do riot engage the Japanese in major battles," General Yeh said, "but we achieve our purpose by piling up many small ones, in which we are sure to be victorious."

It isv well known that on several occasions conflicts of various sorts have occurred between the New Fourth Army and the regular armies. Asked if such conflicts were serious, General Yeh answered, "Such incidents as have take place have been of minor importance." ■ - 5 ,