Reds Thrust Within 15 Miles Of Shanghai: Threat To Fukien Area

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22942, 10 May 1949, Page 5

Reds Thrust Within 15 Miles Of Shanghai: Threat To Fukien Area

(N.Z.P.A.—lteuter—Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) SHANGHAI, May 9. T&e imminent Communist invasion of Fukien Province and the infiltration of a “small detachment” of Communist forces into the region north of Kating, about 15 miles north-west of Shanghai, were major war developments indicated in the official bulletin today.

The communique claimed that the Communist threat to Tsingtao, the base of the United States West Pacific Fleet, in North-east Shantung, has been crushed by the routing of the Communist attackers at Tsimo, north of Tsingtao, after a four-day battle during which 8000 Communists were killed.

Lacking details, military observers are unable to assess the seriousness of the Communist infiltration into Kating. They said, however that the city was vital for the effective defence of Shanghai.

Close to Shanghai Harbour

Lying about 12 miles south-east of Taichong, the northernmost prop of the Shanghai outer defence arc. it is located only 10 miles west of the mouth of Shanghai’s harbour, Woosung, the loss of which would enable the Communists to close the Whangpoo River to all shipping. Communist military activities in other sectors of the Shanghai front slackened considerably during the past 24 hours. On the Kiangsi front, the Communists’ forces are nearing the Fukien border. They are today attacking Yuanshan, about 10 miles from the Fukien border. Persistent reports said tonight that General Chiang Kai-shek was personally directing the defence of Shanghai, says the United Press correspondent. A Canton dispatch, quoting -high Government authorities there, also said that Genera! Chiang was directing the strategy in Shanghai. Official sources, however, refused to comment and imposed a news blackout on the Generalissimo’s whereabouts.

According to reports, he has set up his headquarters on a destroyer in the Shanghai area, and has made at least two secret trips to Shanghai in recent weeks.

William Parrott, the N.Z.P:A.-Reuter correspondent in Canton, says that foreign military observers said today that once the Communists disposed of the retreating Nationalists south of the Yangtse there would be little to bar their progress to the frontiers of Hong Kong and Indo-China except time and their own inclination.

Foreign diplomats said they were unimpressed with any military arrangements the Nationalists might now make. They said it was too late for the Nationalists to retrieve the position, cither by their own efforts or with military and financial aid from abroad. The United Press correspondent in Tokyo quotes reliable British quarters as saying they were convinced that the Chinese Communists w,ould attack Hong Kong. One source said: “It is not a question of if Hong Kong will be attacked but of when.” Jeeps and Lorries Commandeered

The Shanghai garrison has ordered certain business firms, some British some American and some Chinese, to deliver about 500 jeeps and lorries to the garrison by noon tomorrow. The order said the vehicles would be used for military purposes for one week, after which another batch would be commandeered.

The owners are to supply drivers, tools and spare tyres. The order added that refusal to obey would be punished according to the seriousness of the offence and according to martial law—which can mean the death penalty. The order also commanded obedience “irrespective of transfer or sale.” Reuter’s news agency was ordered to bring in a jeep that it sold several weeks ago.

Many vehicles have been sold or shipped in recent weeks and many other concerns are believed to be in a similar dilemma. What they will do and what the garrison will do are unknown.