KAI-SHEK IN INDIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 February 1942, Page 6

KAI-SHEK IN INDIA

“TREMENDOUSLY IMPRESSED.” LONDON, February 16. Marshal Chiang Kai-shek has met Pandit Jawharlal Nehru, President of the Congress Party, for the fourth time at New Delhi. In an interview to-night, the Chinese leader said: “I have been in. India nearly a week and what I have„seen has tremendously impressed me.” In the course of a visit to the defences on the Khyber Pass on the north-west frontier, the Chinese leader was presented with an address of welcome by the tribes there, states __ a Press message from Peshawar. “We have heard of your victories against the Japanese. We hope that they will be the forerunner of many victories to come,” stated the message. “In spite of minor reverses _we are quite confident of ultimate victory for the Allies and the world will be freed from the tyrants.” The generalissimo replied: “I hope that you will join the Allied cause so that freedom from aggression can be brought to the world.” . . The visit of Marshal Chiang Kaishek to India is important for three special reasons, according to wellinformed commentators. It proclaims to the world, and both the Viceroy (Lord Linlithgow) and Marshal Chiang Kai-shek have affirmed, that China and India and all the peoples of the British Empire are comrades m arms, bound together by mutual trust and respect, in resisting a common aggressor. China is fighting as an honoured and equal member of the ABCDA group of nations, and her leadersnip is assured in the rebuilding of Asia when Japanese slavery has been destroyed. „ , , Second, the visit will enable Marshal Chiang Kai-shek and the military authorities in India to work out m further detail plans already in operation for united action in the defence of Burma. . ... Third, Marshal Chiang Kai-shek is taking the opportunity of having conversations with Indian political leaders, both Hindu and Moslem. He has had considerable experience in. his own country in nersuading 10 divergent elements to work together as a national team for the common weal. If he can contribute towards bnng,ign together two great racial religions and communities in a united effort lor the defence of India he will have rendered that country, and indeeq the British Empire as a whole, a service oi incalculable value for the future as well as for the immediate present.

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. AIM OF INDIAN CONGRESS NEW _ DELHI, Feb. 16. Nehru, Congress Leader, was interviewed and questioned as to whether Marshal Chiang Kai-shek s visit to India would cause India s political parties to pull more closely with the Government. He said that inferences which some quarters, were drawing from Marshal Kai-shek’s visit were entirely unjustified. There was no solution of the Indian problem except the full transfer of power to national hands that were responsible to the people. “Two elements, pulling in different directions, obviously cannot share that power,” he said. “It is patent that a free National Government would be intensely interested in the rapid development of Indian industry. India has enormous resources, scientific ability, and industrial and financial competence. A National Government would harness this tremendous energy and "ability of India, which would make a vast difference in our production both for war and for post-war purposes.” NEW ROAD TO~CHUNGKING. RUGBY. February 16. Speaking at a Press conference in New Delhi, Pandit Nehru said that even if the Burma Road was cut off, it would not cripple China. A new road to Chungking from India was nearing completion. India was in complete sympathy with China, and it had always been so, even before the recent develop; ments. “Under 'no circumstances,” said- Pandit Nehru, “are we going to submit or surrender to Japanese aggression.” PLIGHT OF PRISONERS CHUNGKING, Feb. 16. Five thousand troops of the surrendered Hong Kong garrison are living in an internment camp at Kowloon under primitive conditions, without proper food. Mr. Arnold Vaught, of the International Friends’ Mission, reported this. Fie said that as the troops marched past the Kowloon Y.M.C.A., they begged water, but people who ran to give it were threatened with Japanese bayonets. Only two bowls of poorly-cooked rice daily per man was provided. European non-combatants in concentration camps were allowed out only two hours daily, and were given very little food. FATAL COLD SPELL CHUNGKING, Feb. 16. Eight hundred are reported to have died in Shanghai in a cold wave. The entire population, including foreigners are threatened with starvation unless Red Cross relief is arranged shortly. Snow has been falling for the fifth consecutive day throughout the Yangtze River Valley from Shanghai to the interior.