NEARING CANTON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27082, 17 May 1949, Page 5

NEARING CANTON

CHINESE COMMUNIST FORCES STATE OF WAR DECLARED Rec. 11 p.m. SHANGHAI. May 18. The garrison commander of Canton General Yeh Shao, has declared a state of war in the city and advised all citizens to return to their home areas. Military lorries have been carrying the property of official families to the docks for transportation on the river steamer, which runs between Canton and Hongkong. The authorities have handed 30 armoured cars to the garrison to help maintain order inside Canton as the Communist forces draw closer. Communist troops smashing onwards through the network of Shanghai’s outer defences reached to within eight miles of the city to-day after a night during whiclTv * the red glow of burning buildings lit up the sky line to .the north of the city. ? Government troops late to-day were still firmly holding the vital Woosung area north of Shanghai with naval . and air support, thus keeping open the last escape route through Whangpoo out to sea. The Central News Agency said tonight that the battle to defend the metropolis of Shanghai is in progress. The hottest engagement at present is centred on satellite points around Woosung The agency said Nationalist troops are heroically defending their lines, despite the oVirush of Red troops thrown into the battle in “human sea tactics.” Gunfire Audible Gunfire was distinctly audible m Shanghai to-night as the battle entered a grim phase. The famed Bund presented an eerie spectacle with the docks emptied of big ships.' i Resignation appears to be setting on a city which faces inevitable doom within a matter of days. The Nationalist forces that evacuated Hankow are retreating to new defences at Yochow, on the Yangtse. 110 miles south-west of Hankow. Four British Overseas Airways flying boats are standing by in Hongkong to-night to begin evacuation of Britons .from Shanghai to-morrow. American air lines serving Shanghai announced to-day that their services will be discontinued to-morrow, wjien the last planes out of the threatened city will leave. Garrison Retires ' The Associated Press correspondent at Shanghai said the defence so far has not qualified for any military accolade. Each time the Communists have attacked the outer perimeter the Nationalists have pulled back. The garrison command issues resounding communiques detailing great slaughter of Communists, but the garrison is pulling back steadily into Shainghai. Some of the defence measures are completely confusing. The defence work at the city limits could not withstand a determined troop of Boy Scouts. Not content with handling purely military questions, the garrison has gone into economic and political affairs with a vengeance. Within the past week the garrison has directed the police to execute more than a score of men for political and economic “ crimes.” Shanghai may be in for a hard time when the Communists cr . me —and none doubts they are coming—but Shanghai will not soon for-r-P ‘ <ts last davs under the Nationalists