NEARING NANKING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26996, 3 February 1949, Page 5

NEARING NANKING

CHINESE COMMUNISTS EARLY CROSSING OF YANGTSE EXPECTED ACTIVITY IN CANTON NZP A—C opy right Rec. 9.50 p.m. NANKING, Feb. 2. The Communists are attacking Icheng, two miles north of the Yangtse River and 30 miles east of Nanking. Reports reaching Nanking said the Communists now controlled threequarters of the town. Another report said the Communists were about 30 miles north of Chingkiang, in the Kaoyu lake district on the Grand Canal, and were feverishly building 500 boats which are expected to be used for a massed crossing of the Yangtse. The craft could be brought down the Grand Canal to the Yangtse opposite Chingkiang. Reuter’s Canton correspondent says that in an atmosphere of local apathy, the stage is being set for the establishment of Canton as the new capital of Nationalist China. Following the arrival of hundreds of Government officials, many legislators are now coming south from Nanking and the influx is expected to increase during the next few days. At the same time representatives of many of Nanking’s 38 foreign missions have begun to assemble in Canton. The correspondent says that informed observers in Canton are still not convinced that the Government can move south and continue to operate effectively. They pointed out that apart from moneyed interests, the Kwangtung capital offers. no backing either in men or morale. Observers believe that if the Communists are not held at the Yangtse, it will be only a matter of months before they reach the south. Canton at present is protected mainly by the ill-equipped and partiallytrained provincial force and there is little likelihood of an effective military body being brought south. Although little more than a fortnight has passed since the fall of Tientsin, the city is quickly returning to normal, says Reuter's Tientsin correspondent. Street barricades have been removed and the city would probably witness an economic boom if tele-communica-tions were restored. Forty slogans for current use by the Tientsin executive committee of the Chinese Communist Party include: “ Oppose American imperialistic aggression in China—oppose the revival of Japan’s aggresive potential through American imperialistic fostering—down with Chiang Kai-shek, the running dog of American imperialism.” To prevent looting sentries have been posted outside shops whose display windows have been broken by gunfire. , The Communists claim the capture alive of the garrison commander. General Chen Chieh Cheng, and the Mayor, Tu Chien-shih.