Full-Scale Drive On Communists In China Planned

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 March 1947, Page 7

Full-Scale Drive On Communists In China Planned

(Rec. 2 p.m.) ; SHANGHAI, March 16. The Central News Agency reports that Government troops, battling against Con\munist forces, are only 47 miles south of Yenan. This-is the ' closest approach they have reported of Marshal Chiang Kai-shek’s I .armies to the Communists’ mountain stronghold. . Government political circles predict imminent action against the Communists on all fronts with all the resources at Marshal Chiang’s command; Marshal Chiang addressing the Kuomintang’s executive committee said hopes for a settlement of China’s civil war by politicaTmeans had been shattered and the armed activities of the Communists in rebellion to frustrate national unification were spreading wider every day. While .the people of the entire country were demanding stability the Communists were deliberately widening their sphere of disturbance. The Government, to safeguard the unity' of the nation and the security of the people, could not watch the spread of that disturbance without taking measures to suppress it. Marshal Chiang urged the' committee to adopt resolutions ending . the party’s “political tutelage” period of Government control and .. .inaugurate constitutional rule. “From now onwards responsibility for the State will devolve on the shoulders of the various parties and the people of the entire country,” added Marshal Chiang. “Hereafter we will do our duty and enjoy our rights in the same manner as will other parties.