WALLACE ALLEGES U.S. MILITARY ACTION IN CHINA

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 February 1948, Page 5

WALLACE ALLEGES U.S. MILITARY ACTION IN CHINA

NEW YORK, February 22.

“American Army officers are training new Chinese Government forces and American bases are now being secretly erected at Tsingtao and on Formosa,’’ said Mr Henry Wallace, who will stand independently for the U.S. Presidency, today. Accusing the Truman Administration of military intervention in China, Mr Wallace added: “The 7th Fleet and other units cruise constantly in Chinese waters. Over 25,000 members of our armed services are involved. A total of 271 American naval vessels and large quantities of aircraft and other war supplies have been turned over to Chiang-Kai-shek for the civil war.’’

Mr Wallace said: “Mr Truman’s request for an additional 570,000,000 dollars for the corrupt Chiang Government is one more phase of our financial and military intervention there. The situation in China is tragic proof of the inevitable failure of our present foreign policy, of which the Marshall Plan is part.” Mr Wallace asked Congress and the American people to reject the President’s programme, and urged all pos-

sible aid to the Chinese people through the United Nations, such aid to be given “once peace is established, so that reconstruction is possible.’ “According to an authoritative source Marshall Chiang Kai-shek has permitted a high Chinese Government official to attempt to reopen negotiations with the Chinese Communists, reports the correspondent of the United Press of America in Nanking. “It is not known whether he is merely sounding out the Communists or actually trying to negotiate a settlement of the 17-year-old civil war.