FIGHTING IN MANCHURIA

Evening Star, Issue 25770, 17 April 1946, Page 8

FIGHTING IN MANCHURIA

COMMUNISTS ATTACKING CHANGCHUN THREE AIRFIELDS CAPTURED CHUNGKING, April 15. Government and. Communist forces are now battling for possession of Changchun. The Communists launched an attack yesterday, two hours before the withdrawal of the Soviet occupation troops. The Communists had previously gained control of all three airfields near. Changchun, cutting off supplies for the small Government garrison, and sifted into the city from the suburbs. The ' Government garrison is reserving its niain strength for the defence of the centre of the city, which is honeycombed with slit trenches, barbed wire entanglements, road blocks, and sand-bagged gun emplacements^ While the Communists are attacking the railway station from the north the Nationalists are running "an armoured car up and down the tracks, firing on the attackers, who are using Japanese rifles, machine guns, anti-tank guns, grenades, mortars, and some artillery. The Communists are reported to be led by the new Fourth Army commander, General Chow Pao-chung. • The Government, Central News Agency reports from Mukden that Government troops captured Sze-ping-kai to-day. The Nationalists had earlier repulsed a heavy Communist attack 15 miles from Sze-ping-kai. Marshal Chiang Kai-shek to-day threw in his personal influence in an effort to achieve some semblance of balance in the' Manchurian situation, which Chinese Communists say has reached the stage of civil war. Marshal Chiang appointed a three-member committee - from the Kuomintang to confer immediately with the Communists and the Democratic League of China Youth Party in order to end the stalemate. He is reported to have asked the Communists and other parties to submit nominations, before April 20, for a reorganised Chinese Government.