COMMUNISTS EXPECTED TO CO BEYOND SOUTHERN CHINA

Grey River Argus, 27 September 1949, Page 5

COMMUNISTS EXPECTED TO CO BEYOND SOUTHERN CHINA

(From Lionel Hudson, N.Z.P.A. Reuter Correspondent). SINGAPORE, Sept 2

Military strategy in South-East Asia is being reviewed as the belief grows thot mere frontiers will not deter the triumphant Chinese Communist leaders in their “liberation” drive southward. Political observers here, who are in touch with SouthEast Asian centres are agreed tha’t the vulnerable territories of French Indo-China and Burma now face an immediate threat from their northern neighbour. Communist imperialism now rolling through China, they have t'Tided, has a direct mission in South-East Asia.

A conference of Communist representatives from Pacific countries scheduled to start in Peiping, North China, on November 15, is cited Ss a significant move. Security Intelligence men say that the Reds aim to use thir timely gathering to organise the final blow at democracy in East Asia.

The conference is ostensibly a meeting of the Communist-controlled World Federation of Trade Unions and delegates have already been summoned from countries stretching front Korea to Australia. Political appreciation of the situation in East Asia has changed since the Chinese Red Armies crossed the Yangtse. Previous to this, experts on China argued that the People’s Liberation Army was unlikely to be directly intrested in countries beyond China’s herders. They considered that the local Communists would have their hands full trying to consolidate in their own great sprawling continent. China’s Communists have already intimated over their Peiping radio that they have taken up the role of lone liberators of East Asia. Their boss, Mao Tse-tung, has formally declared. that his party and the Communist Movement in South-East Asia are akin. He has promised them “'moral and material aid,” and they, in turn, tend to look increasingly to China for encouragement, support, and guidance. Astute observers say that Russia may work behind the scenes but will not get a mention on any programme the United Nations may see As the Chinese Communists push down to the border province of Yunnan, which has a common frontier with Burma and Indo-China. more than 7,000,000 Chinese in the adjacent countries are asking themselves where their loyalties lie. Wellinformed circles here expect Chinese Nationalist feeling to become identified with Chinese Communism when the Communist-dominated Government is set up in China. They have little doubt that the Chinese leaders will use this soft spot to further their expansionist aims.

Awakened to the threat from China the Governments of Indo-China, Burma, Thailand and Malaya are making an effort to meet it. Pressed for time, the French Forces have not waited for the wet season in Tonkin to end to take the offensive. The "campaigning season” starts i’ October, but the first phase of a push aimed at regaining control of the strategic Red River Delta had already been launched. Apart from depriving the powerful Communistled Vietminh Army (autonomist insurgents) of the valuable rice bowl in that area, the French are int'at on strengthening lines of conimunication between Hanoi and the Port of Haiphong and positions on the China border.

The Thai Government is making a bid to keep the revolutionary trends in check but the task is a formidable one. .Meantime, in Malaya and Singapore the authorities are using powerful armed forces and stringent emergency powers to keep the Communist terrorism under control and ensure economic stability on the Peninsula.

Britain’s Commissioner-General for Sxuth-East Asia, Mr Malcolm Macdonald, Kula Lumpur, said that Communism now threatens the peoples of South-East Asia "with a fate similar to that already suffered by the small rations of Eastern Europe.” The mixed communities of the Colony and the Federation are being constantly reminded over the radio and in the newspapers of the seriousness of the situation. Recently Radio Malaya broadcast the first of a series of talks on "This is Communism,” which review living conditions in countries behind the Iron Curtain. Strategists here reiterate at every opportunity the necessity of having at least one solid base in South-East Asia, from which to launch an offensive against advancing Communism. That may be British Malaya’s job; but American economic aid is the most vital weapon, they say.