CHAOS IN CHINA

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 November 1944, Page 5

CHAOS IN CHINA

CHIANG KAI-SHEK v. STILWELL

JOURNALIST’S DISCLOSURE

NEW YORK, October 31. “The decision to remove General Stilwell has the most profound implications for China, as well as American policy toward that country, and the Allied war effort in. the Far East,” says a “New York Times’s Chungking correspondent, Mr Brooks Atkinson, who has returned to the United States. “It may mean that the United States has decided in future to discount China’s part in the counter-offensive. It represents inside China a political triumph of the moribund anti-democratic regime, which is more concerned with maintaining its political supremacy than driving out the Japanese. MajorGeneral Patrick Hurley conducted negotiations with Marshal Chiang Kai-shek for two months to give General Stilwell full command of Chinese ground and air forces and to increase China’s participation m a counter-offensive against Japan. Chiang at first was inclined to agree to General Stilwell’s appointment as Commander-in-Chief, but later he decided to accept any American commander except General Stilwell. Chiang’s attitude became stiff and hostile, and at a private meeting of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee, he announced the terms of his personal ultimatum to America as (1) General Stilwell must go; (2) the control of American lend-lease materials must be placed in Chiang’s hands; (3) he refused to help to unify China by coming to terms, with the Chinese Communists. If America did not yield, Chiang declared, China would fight the Japanese alone. Mr Roosevelt agreed to recall General Stilwell, who knows more about China than most foreigners, z and is more intimately acquainted with the needs and capacities of the Chinese Army than Chiang or the War Minister. General Hoyingchun. For the 32 months General Stilwell has been constantly -frustrated in attempts to help China to stay in the war and to improve the combat efficiency of the Chinese forces.” Mr Brooks Atkinson continues:— The United States is now committed at least passively, to supporting a regime which has become

INCREASINGLY UNPOPULAR

and distrusted in China, which maintains three secret police services and also concentration camps for political prisoners, which stifles free speech, and resists democratic forces. A fundamental difference between Chiang and General Stilwell is that the latter has been eager to fight the Japanese in China without delay Chiang hoped he would not have to do so. This is tl'Zi only explanation of a long series of obstructions and delays which prevented General Stilwell fulfilling his original mission of equipping and training “unlimited manpower” resources of the Chinese Army. Chiang has the virtue of refusing to make peace with the Japanese, but his technique or preserving a ticklish balance of political power keeps him passive. The Chinese Communists, whom Chiang started trying to liquidate in 1927, have good armies now fighting a guerrilla war against the Japanese in North-eastern China. The Generalissimo regards these armies as the chief threat to his supremacy. Distrusting the Communists, Chiang made no sincere attempt to arrange at least a truce for the duration. The Generalissimo’s regime has become bureaucratic, inefficient and corrupt. Most of the armies have been poorly fed and shockingly maltreated. Most of China’s troubles now are the result of having been warring against Japan over seven years, and of being totally blockaded for two and a-half years. The reason nothing was done to alleviate their miseries is that the Generalissimo was determined to maintain his group of ageing reactionaries in power until the war is over, when, it is commonly believed, he will resume the war against the Comunists without distraction.

Chiang has been bewildered and alarmed by the rapidity wherewith China is now falling apart. He feels secure only with associates who obey him implicitly. His rages become more and more ungovernable. He attacks symptoms ratner than causes. The Generalissimo’s attitude toward Americans has become more resentful. American criticism of China is hotly rebuked. General Stilwell arrived in this stagnant, baleful atmosphere in February, 1942, animated with the single idea- of fighting the Japanese immediately. But the war m China was initially handicapped by the Allied decision to fight Germany first. General Stilwell was unable to get one per cent, of the American Army for use in the China-Burma-India theatre and unable to get the needed equipment. Less than a month after his arrival. General Stilwell was plunged into the calamitous Burma campaign, without notice. He had to return to Chungking, and induce General Chiang to return to the front, to vest him in sufficient authority. Furthermore, although the troops were in need of transport, most of China’s trucks were hauling civilian loot from Burma to China, where the goods were worth huge sums. Chiang and his staff are like the American Air Force, which needs nothing except food and airfields But the Chinese Government hedges and hesitates over anything involving the use of its armies. Foreigners can only conclude that the Government wants to save the armies to render its political power secure after the war.

A United Press correspondent, Mr Darrell Berrigan, who has just returned from China, says: One hitherto undisclosed aspect of the controversy is a report that the United States Ambassador to China. Clarence Gauss, has submitted his resignation as the result of General Stilwell’s removal. Mr Gauss was long an advocate of a strong policy in China. He is said to fee) that the withdrawal of the veteran General has weakened the American position in China.

LONDON PRESS COMMENT

LONDON, October 31

“The Economist,” commenting on the Far Eastern campaign, says:— There is one feature which suggests that, though it is generally victorious, the goal of total victory may not be immediately within Allied grasp. The war is going badly in China. There the Japanese recently moved to the offensive, and are advancing towards Kweilin and Nanning, and down the railway to Canton. There are many motives behind it. One is to compensate for losses at sea and in a shortage of shipping, by opening land communications on the largest possible scale. But the main reasons are strategic, and they vitally -affect the total picture of the Far Eastern campaign. Lord Mountbatten’s campaign, principally in Burma, and a combined Pacific offensive of Admiral*Nimitz and General MacArthur are still two separate actions. The hinge whereon botn turn, and which is to- enable them to swing from the reconquest of outlying territory to a direct attack on Japan is China. It is at this

hinge that the Japanese are striking now.

JAPANESE RESOURCES The fighting round Kweilin s4s?a salutary reminder that it will .;s(ke longer to conquer Japan than conquei' Japan’s conquests. This vital distinction is the core of Japanese planning for another war. The citadel of Japan’s defence is an inner zone made up of the Japanese mainland, North China, Korea, and Manchuria. With this inner zone which the Japanese have purposely planned to withstand siege they are driving on to : a more complete mobilisation of their economic resources for war. The chief features of this progress are. a ruthless scrapping of the textile industry in favour of • war industry, high priority given to aircraft—a production of between 15,000 and 20,000 yearly is claimed—a great increase in steel output, special attention given to light metals and ferro alloys, and expansion of extractive industries in North China, Manchuria and Korea. ■ From Korea alone Japan gets six million tons of coal yearly, a million tons of pig iron, half its tungsten, all its mica and graphite, and most of its molybdenum as well as steel, gold, zinc, lead and magnesia. The Japanese population in this inner zone is sev-enty-four million, and for workers and second-line troops the Japanese High Command can draw on twentythree million inhabitants of Korea and fifty-three million in Manchuria. The outpost? of Pacific conquests are lightly held and the pick of the army is concentrated in Manchuria and North. China. Weapons at the disposal of her armies are plentiful and stocks large, but technically they are completely outclassed by the Allied weapons. In shipbuilding is the greatest bottleneck. However, as the fighting draws back to the inner zone, pressure on shipping will relax. In the air they are concentrating on fighters and the bombing force is in sight. Referring to the tendency both in Britain and Anglo-America to feel that it is only a matter of time for Japan to be defeated, the article says: There is no reason t o suppose the Prime Minister and President at Quebec under-estimated the task ahead, or found their resources inadequate. It declares that Russian intervention could revolutionise the military situation overnight by opening a backdoor into the inner zone and it refers to the significant change of tone in the Russian attitude to Japan.

MR ROOSEVELT’S STATEMENT

(Rec. 1.20 p.m.) WASHINGTON, October 31

Mr. Roosevelt told a Press conference that personal differences between Marshal Chiang Kai-Shek and General Stilwell necessitated General Stilwell’s recall. Mr. Roosevelt explained that the Generalissimo and Generak Stilwell fell out quite a while ago. Subsequently Chiang asked someone to replace Stilwell as his Chief of Staff. The withdrawal was not connected with matters of strategy or policy in China. Mr. Roosevelt told the reporters that they had better say it was a matter of personality. Mr. Donald Nelson’s and General Hurley’s visit to China was’ not connected with the Stilwell matter, nor was the position of the Chinese Communists a factor in the with- # drawal. He declared that Stilwell was coming home to take another assignment totally commensurate with his rank. He praised Stilwell for an extremely good job, except for one thing—the,, differences with Chiang Kai-Shek, and added that if there were a British officer in this country whom 'he< disliked and he told Mr. Churchill he wanted him recalled, he was sure it wpuld;be_. clone. At the same time Mr. ■ Roosevelt disclosed that Mr. Clarence Gauss had resigned, but declared this was not even remotely connected with the Stilwell affairfw Major-General Odium, Canadian; Ambassador to China, according" to;' the Canadian Press, has issued.'.a statement that Stilwell’s recall will undoubtedly ease the situation in thb Far East. The statement added that Stillwell is a first-class fighting sol--, dier, but has not the capacity to get ' along with men. such as has been' shown by General MacArthur and Eisenhower.

NEW U.S.A. COMMANDER.

LONDON, October 31

Major-General Wedemeyer has arrived'at Chungking to take command of the China part of the newlysplit American-China-Burma-India theatre. He is ’47 years old. He has been very much in the background as Deputy-Chief of Staff in the Southeast Asia command, says an Associated Press correspondent. Neither his name nor his work has been much before the public, but the influence of the keen military mind of this expert planner has extended beyond the South-east Asia theatre. He. had a considerable amount to do with the first over-all plan to invade France. Like General Eisenhower, he is an ardent advocate and practise!’ of making the “Allied” part of the Allied command really work.

JAPANESE ADVANCE

(Rec. 10 a.m.) CHUNGKING, October 31

Three Japanese columns have reached seven miles east of Kweilin, and another is reported 11 miles to the northward, says a Chinese communique. The Japanese are preparing to storm Liuchow, 70 miles southwest of Kweilin.

Operating on five fronts from October 26 to 29, the Chinese-American Air Force shot down 11 Japanese fighters and six bombers, and also destroyed four grounded bombers. Four of our planes are missing. The Fourteenth Air Force War Hawks trapped in a canyon a twomiles long Japanese column advancing westward from the West River bend. The planes killed 100 troops, then again strafed the Japanese, killing a further unestimated number.

RUGBY, October 31

Fourteenth Air Force bombers have knocked out the Yellow River bridge on the Peking-Hankow railway, states a communique from Chungking. Two spans collapsed and a third sustained bomb hits. A vita. Japanese communication line' was thus, disrupted. .