CANTON FACING OCCUPATION BY THE COMMUNISTS

Grey River Argus, 11 October 1949, Page 5

CANTON FACING OCCUPATION BY THE COMMUNISTS

CANTON, Oct 9.

The evacuation from Canton of Government officials will begin today when 10 Chinese commercial airliners will leave Hong Kong for Canton to pick up Government evacuees. It is believed that the Government will be transferred to Chungking or Kunming. Communist forces now control all the major points on a stretch of railways running from Hengyang southward to Yingtak, which is 75 miles north of Canton. If a report that Yingtak has fallen is correct, there are virtually no obstacles to the Communist advance on Canton. Some Chinese officials m Canton expect the city to fall within a week or 10 days.

A high- ranking Nationalist official said that the fate of Canton depended on whether General in Piao’s forces struck southwards from Hengyang towards the Kwangsi Province or turned southwards down the CantonHankow railway to support General Chen Keng’s troops at Kukong. The official believed that Canton could be defended, in spite of the startling set-back in the past 48 hours. He said that a delaying action would be fought somewhere north of Canton. If this failed, the troops defending Canton would be withdrawn to southwestern Kwangtung in an attempt to keep the Communists out of Kwangsi.

Guerrilla Campaign Against Reds In Honan* Ranges

HONG KONG, Oct 9.

A Nationalist guerrilla force numbering 200 000 men is now operating against the Chinese Communists in the Honan mountains and border areas, according to General Chaotzeli, leader of the guerrillas and former Honan Governor, and commander of the Nationalist 127th -Army. General Chao, how in Chungking, said that most of his guerrillas comprised ‘‘‘The common folks,” who were dissatisfied with Communist rule.

He claims thfit this anti-Communist sentiment in Honans’ predominantly farming population is high.