HONG KONG GOVERNMENT REIMPOSES DEFENCE REGULATIONS OF WARTIME AND TAKES OVER AIR CORPORATION

Grey River Argus, 18 August 1949, Page 5

HONG KONG GOVERNMENT REIMPOSES DEFENCE REGULATIONS OF WARTIME AND TAKES OVER AIR CORPORATION

(N.Z.P.A.—REUTER CABLE) (.Received 10.40 p.m.) HONG KONG, August 17 The Hong Kong Government to-day announced new emergency requisitioning regulations, and it immediately took action, under them, “by taking over portion of the China National Aviation Corporation Installations at the Kaitak aerodrome, for use by ; the Royal Air Force. The China Corporation has announced the suspension of all of its operations from Hong Kong as the result of this action. The new regulations empower the Government to requisition the land or other property, or to use land wherever it is deemed necessary in the public interest. The regulations are a substantial reenactment of the provisions of the Defence Regulations of 1940.

Reds Advance in South China HONG KONG Aug 16. The Chinese Nationalists have now withdrawn from Foochow the capital of Fukien Province, according to a Communist report. The Nationalists left a few police. The Nationalists have ordered the evacuation of Nanhsiung, on the Ki-angsi-Kwangtung highway, within rapid advance by General Liu Pochen’s Communist armies, after bypassing Kanchow and occupying Nanking. General Liu’s armies are developing another drive towards the Kwangtung border, east of their advance along the Kiangsi-Kwantung highway. The new drive is aimed at the southern Hunan towns' of Tirignan, Chiennan. and Lunnan. These towns are on highways which would enable the Communists either to approach the Hankow-Canton railway below Kukong, at a point about 70 miles north of Canton, or to make a sweep through eastern Kyangtung, north of Hong Kong, direct to Canton.

REDS NEARER TO CANTON WITH MORE CITIES TAKEN (Rec. 11.10) HONGKONG. Aug. 17. The city of Foochow, capital of the province of Fukien, and the city of Hangchow, in Southern Kia.ngsi, are now in Communist hands. Thus General Liupo Chang’s Communist troops are advancing rapidly in north-east Kwangtung. Communist troops are said to have reached the outskirts of Tayu, which is 175 miles north of Canton. The Nationalist military authorities in Canton have ordered the civilians to evacuate Kukon, which is 120 miles north of Canton, on the Can-ton-Hankow railway. On the Hunan front, Communist forces are steadily advancing down the Canton-Hankow railway. One column has outflanked Hengyang. the headquarters .of the Nationalist, General Palchunghsi. The Communist General. Kinpiao’s forces are said to be closing in on Leiyang, two hundred miles north of Canton. PRO-COMMUNIST MOVE Some 44 former supporters of Marshal Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang administration have issued a proclamation calling upon all supporters of the Kuomintang to go

over to the Communists. The proclamation accuses Marshal Chiang and his suppoprters of betraying the principles of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Kuomintang. Among the signatories are General Lung Yun, a former governor, of Yunnan Province, several members of the Chinese Legislative Yuan, and a number of high civil and military? officials. \ CHINA’S INTEREST IN U.S.A. ATTITUDE (N.Z.P.A.—REUTER CABLE) (Rec. 11.45). CANTON, August 17. The Chinese Government has issued an interim reply to the recent United States State Department White Paper on United States relations with China. Geo Jeh, Acting Foreign Minister, issued the statement. It said: “It is a source of satisfaction to rote that the American Government has copie to share with the Chinese Government two fundamental views which the Chinese Government has constantly maintained, namely: (1) That the Chinese Communists are thorough Marxists, and are tools of Moscow; and (2) that the Soviet Union has violated both, in the letter and in the spirit, the Treaty of Friendship and Alliance between China and the Soviet Union that was concluded in 1945.

“At the same time, th e Chinese Government takes serious exceptions to views and statements on many other important questions contained in the White Paper. But it is not the intention of the Chinese Government to engage in a controversy over past issues, io the detriment of the traditional friendship between the Chinese and the American peoples, and the common cause of the democracies”.

MacARTHUR NOT MEDDLING IN CHINA WASHINGTON, Aug 16. General MacArthur has formally declined the invitation to return home to give Congress a report on •the Far Eastern situation. The defence secretary, Mr Louis Johnson to-day released the text of General MacArthur's reply- to the invitation of the Combined Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees on the general administration of the 1,450,000,000 dollar Foreign Arms Programme. General MacArthur reiterated an earlier statement that America’s best interests in the Far East were being best served by his remaining at his post.