NEW THREAT TO SHANGHAI BY REDS WHO CUT OFF SOUTHERN RAIL EXIT AS POPULACE LEAVES HANGCHOW

Grey River Argus, 3 May 1949, Page 5

NEW THREAT TO SHANGHAI BY REDS WHO CUT OFF SOUTHERN RAIL EXIT AS POPULACE LEAVES HANGCHOW

(Received 10.30 p.m.) 'SHANGHAI, May 2 Latest official Chinese war communiques do not mention the military situation around Hangchow, where the populace is fleeing, but they hint again at a new threat to Shanghai from the northwest. Communist forces in Changshu, fifty miles north-west of Shanghai continue to be strengthened.,. There has been a flight of people from Hangchow, but the Communists have taken a railway key point, cutting off the railway route from Shangai southwards towards Canton. Foreigners in South China and Canton are being advised to leave.

The Communist envelopment is creeping closer to Shanghai from a new direction. Communists, in a vast mopping-up operation, are threatening towns north of Shanghai. The most important of these is Woosung, at the mouth of the Wlhangpoo River. A concentration of Chinese warships is standing off Woosung Teady to swing their guns into action if the Communists attempt to approach the city from this direction. A Communist broadcast from Peking claimed that a great victory had been won over the Nationalists in the Nanking-Shanghai-Hangchow area. The broadcast said that eight Government armies had been wiped out and portions of four others routed.

HANGCHOW EXODUS TO THE SOUTH

(Rec. 9.25). SHANGHAI, May 2. A wild exodus of civilians from the city of Hangchow is in full swiir; following on the Nationalist Army's evacuation of the city. Hangchow, earlier, had been chosen as the key point for a new Nationalist line of defence. To-day refugees, with little bundles of possessions, are pouring out of the abandoned city as Communist forces have continued to approach it from the north. The Hangchow railway station is packed tight with a mass of struggling humanity, numbering over 159 thousand. They are impatiently awaiting trains to speed them to safety along the Hangchow-Nanchang railway, which is the only communication arterv to the southward. Nationalist forces who eight days ago abandoned Yangtse defences and escaped Communist envelopment are to-day falling back behind another of China’s great rivers—the Chientang, 150 miles further south, for the next stand against the advancing Communist armies. Having evacuated Hangchow, the Nationalists are taking up new positions along the south bank of Chientang, which flows in the general direction of then- 500-mile defence line stretching from Ningpo through Hangchow to' Nanchang. Military observers said it is uncertain whether the Nationalists intend to defend the new position or make another strategic withdrawal. Two Communist columns are reported to be moving swiftly south to attack the Nationalist positions along the highways running from the new Communist stronghold to Hangchow and to Changwa 45 miles west. Two other Communist columns are said to be drawing closer, despite Nationalist opposition, to the isolated road and railway junction of Kashing. In Canton to-day. a Government spokesman said the Nationalists have decided to defend Shanghai and Canton 'to the bitter end.

Shanghai Cut Off By Rail From South (Rec 8.45) SHANGHAI, May 2. The semi-official Central News Service, said to-day that the railway from Hangchow to Nanchang has been suspended. This was the last railway escape route from Shanghai to South China. Europeans Advised To Leave South China (Rec. 11.20). CANTON, May 2. The British and American Consulates in Canton to-day advised their nationals in the Canton Consulate district, which embraces the Kwangtung and the Kwangsi provinces, that it would be wise for those able to do so, particularly women and children, to withdraw. This is reported by the N.Z.P.A.-Reuter correspondent, Mr William Parrott. The advice was given in letters that were posted to about two hundred and fifty Britons, and more than six hundred Americans in the Kwangtung and Kwangsi cjties. The letters suggested that those evacuating should rteurn to their countries of origin, rather than congregate in Canton or in Hong Kong, which already are overcrowded.

H.WLS. “Amethyst” Not Being Moved Yet

Firing On Her Said To Have Been Error (Rec. 11.30) LONDON, May 2 A message from Singapore says: A high naval authority told the press to-day that the British Navy would not move the H.M.S. "Amethyst” from her' present position on the Yangtse River until arrangements could be made with both the Communists and the Nationalists to assure a peaceful passage. The Navy has not yet been able to cqntact any central Chinese Communist authority in connection with the matter. The authority disclosed that Chinese messengers had boarded, the "Amethyst” and had advised her commander that she would be safer to stay where she was, as’ there still is considerable war-like activity both upstream and downstream from the ship. The authority expressed the opinion that the Communists’ firing on the "Amethyst” was not deliberate, but was a local mistake, caused by excited Communist gunners and by bad fire discipline.