Reds and Nationalists Clash Along Great Wall

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 267, 12 November 1945, Page 5

Reds and Nationalists Clash Along Great Wall

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) Received Sunday 8.35 p.m. CHUNGKING, Nov. 10. The Communists abruptly cancelled the peace scheduled for this afternoon and declared that they would oppose the entry of Chiang Kai-shek's troops into Manchuria and any other liberated areas. They charged the Government with using 49 armies, aggregating 127 divisions, composed of nearly 1,000,000 men, plus 350,000 puppet troops, and added that the Government divisions were supplied wholly or partly with American equipment. Semi-official Government sources said the Government would probably make its major drive into Manchuria by moving eastward from the Chinwantao area along the Peiping-Mukden railway, and hoped to reach Manchuria this month to replace the Russian occupation forces. A Communist spokesman said an American ultimatum had been served on the commander of tho Red troops at Shankaihann, the coastal terminus of the Great Wall to withdraw his forces 100 kilometres from either side of the Peiping-Mukden railway. The commander rejected the ultimatum. Heavy fighting between the Communists and the Nationalist forces has broken out along the Great Wall of China northward of Chinwangtao, bringing artillery and heavy mortars into action in the Chinese civil war for the first time, says the Associated Press’ correspondent. New clashes are reported along the ChinwangtaoPeiping railway southward of Chinwangtao. The presence of American marines guarding a railway bridge prevented the Communists attacking Nationalistcontrolled armed Japanese holding Shißlung, a village southward of Chinwangtao. The Communists halted their attack when the Marines refused to pull back out of danger. Three more American transports carrying well-equipped troops of the Chinese Eighth Army have left Kowloon for Tsingtao. American sailors returning from Haipong, Indo-Chino, said two Chinese armies had been moved therefrom in a score of American ships. It is understood that one army proceeded to North China and the other to Formosa. General Wedemeyer at Chungking declared that the United States would not help China move troops into Manchuria, but the Central Government had already obtained 20 American transport planes. General Wedemeyer emphasised that the United States could continue to assist In the repatriation of Japanese from the Chinese theatre, but the American forces would remain non-partisan. He expressed regret about the involvment of American troops in the clashes, hut asserted that the Americans had not taken the initiative.