RETREAT FROM SHANGHAI

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27091, 27 May 1949, Page 5

RETREAT FROM SHANGHAI

Fierce Battle North of City NATIONALIST BID FOR SAFETY New Zealand Press Association—Reuter—Copyright Rec. 11 p.m. SHANGHAI, May 25. * After the capture of Shanghai by the Communists earlier this morning, a battle is roaring to a climax on the road to Woosung, north of the city, as retreating Nationalist troops try to fight their way to Woosung, and safety. The violent' Communist cannonading, which was turned on the Woosung fortress and its approaches, is shaking Shanghai. Stubborn Nationalist rearguards are still preventing the Communists from crossing three bridges over the Soochow Creek. The Associated Press correspondent says Communist discipline in Shanghai is firm. The Communists have molested no one and there is no looting. All this is in contrast to Shanghai’s last days under siege. Then swaggering Nationalist soldiers took a Roman holiday in the city’s big hotels, stores, homes and restaurants. They mixed fighting with looting. 1

Communist troops met fierce opposition when they approached the Bund, along the banks of the Whangpoo River. Bridges were guarded by Nationalist machine-gunners. While snipers fired from windows of apartment buildings, Nationalist soldiers fired and hurled grenades from Broadway Mansions apartments, in which several Americans and British are trapped. The Nationalists had built barricades at the three bridges which are the only arteries to Shanghai’s north. Their withering fire forced back the Communists, wno then began a harassing return fire from less-exposed positions. Bullets crackled up and down the Bund in front of the British, American, and Russian Consulates. Thousands watched the fighting from high buildings on the Bund. Communist mortars smashed the main city post office, near Szechwan bridge. The Nationalist rearguard is making a desperate stand to allow the bulk of their comrades to deploy on the outer edges of the city. The United Press correspondent says that the Nationalist rearguard has no chance of surviving more than a few hours.' City Generally Calm Other sections of Shanghai were calm to-day as -Communist columns moved towards billets for the night or brought in supplies. Many persons were on the streets in the west and south parts of the city. Few stores reopened. Residents said the Communists were taking over quietly, and the people were not disturbed. The United Press correspondent said that fanatical rearguard Nationalists still held the north bank of the Soochow Creek to-night, but all the rest of the city was in Communist hands. More than 15,000 Communists have already entered Shanghai, and reinforcements are steadily pouring in. Most came from the west, but others crossed the Whangpoo River from Pootung, on the east bank. Shanghai’s largest fire lit the whole sky in the northern area to-night as the Nationalists set aflame what are believed to be large ammunition dumps near Kiangwan airfield. An unprecedented glow spread across the entire horizon, casting a twilight over Shanghai on the first night of its capture. The fire was preceded and accompanied by tremendous explosions in sectors not yet taken over by the Communists. Vast destruction wrought in the Hungjao suburb of Shanghai, nine miles from the heart of the city, was described by a foreigner who visited the area to-day. He said there was hardly a single house left standing undamaged in this area. A Paris message says: The United States has called on leading non-Communist nations in the Atlantic and the Pacific to weld a common diplomatic front towards the Chinese Communists, says an Associated Press correspondent, quoting a responsible American diplomatic informant. According to the informant, the State Department has sent Notes to more than a dozen countries, including New Zealand, Australia, Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, and South Africa. The United States Secretary of State, Mr Dean Acheson, with top United States leaders, had reached several important policy decisions in relation to China and the Far East generally within the past month. Thet informant said the move, which was made about a fortnight ago. was touched off partly by reports that India was planning a quick recognition of the Chinese Communists as soon as they formed an all-Chinese Government. The American Notes made several important suggestions for the co-ordination of policies towards the Chinese Communists.

One of the most important of these was said to be that none of the countries concerned should recognise new regimes in China before consulting the others. It is understood that France, the United States, and Britain have already agreed on this point. One decision reached by the United States leaders was that the United States should end the “ wait-and-see ” policy towards events in China. The second was that the United States and all likeminded Powers with Pacific interests to defend should begin sinking their differences and begin working out a positive programme for halting the rush of Communism in the Far East. Guarantees Required Reuter quotes reports that the major democratic Powers will ask for certain guarantees from the Communists before agreeing to accord them recognition. These include respect for British sovereignty in Hongkong, the maintenance of an “ open door ’’ policy, and the firm definition of the border between China and Indo-China. Major-general Claire Chennault, war-time commander of the United States Air Force in China, said to-day that, given authority, he could stop the Communist advance in China. “ Give me permission to activate another American volunteer corps and about 166 planes, mostly fighters, plus 1,000,000 dollars to get my propramme * started, and another 250,000 dollars a month to keep it going, and I will stop the Red advance in China,” he said. General Chennault said this would be a small price to pay to save Western China. Burma,’ Siam, India, and Sumatra from the Communists. Unless some steps were taken quickly these countries could be written off so far as the democratic Western world was concerned, said General Chennault.