COURSE OF WAR IN ASIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27092, 28 May 1949, Page 7

COURSE OF WAR IN ASIA

Direct Threat of Involving Western Powers

CHINESE PRESIDENT’S WARNING

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright

Rec. 11 p.m. NEW YORK, May 26. World war three might stem from the current military developments in South China, said the acting Chinese President, General Li Tsungjen in an interview in Canton with Frank Bartholomew, the United Press vice-president for the Pacific area. General Li, who replaced Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek as head of China, said Communism was over-running Asia’s teeming millions with “ direct and immediate threats of involving the United States, Britain, and France. The south-west provinces of China are now the last defence line against a direct Communistic invasion southward into French Indo-China, sweeping over the British flag in Hongkong, Singapore, arid Malaya, and inevitably involving the United States in its defence commitments to the Philippines.”

General Li said Canton would be defended as long as possible If a withdrawal became imperative, the capital would be re-established in the interior, probably Chungking. He indicated that he definitely would not retreat to the island fortress of Formosa, thus exposing China’s southern neighbours to an unchecked Communist invasion.

General Li said that China’s crisis was due to three failures—military, economic, and diplomatic. The diplomatic failures he charged directly to the late President Roosevelt and Mr George Marshall, former United States Secretary of State, who “did not understand that Chinese Communism was thoroughly and completely controlled from Moscow. Mr Roosevelt and some of his diplomatic advisers were betrayed by Mr Stalin into believing that Chinese Communism was something special in the nature of an agrarian reform movement. I think the United States might find it more

practical to help our army to resist Communism in China with moral and financial help than later to be called on to resist Communism in the Philippines and elsewhere with American troops. “Russia plans to use the Chinese Communist Army to start international warfare in the Orient now that the Marshall Plan has blocked off Soviet expansion in Europe for a time,” General Li concluded. Scene in Shanghai Meanwhile, in China, according to Chinese reports, there are at least 50,000 Nationalists in the area from Hongkew. to - who have no' chance of escape because of the lack of shipping facilities. The flotilla which waited to evacuate the beaten Government garrison has left its embarkation point 10 miles north of Shanghai. Many Nationalist troops were reported to have arrived too late to catch the ships, and at least 15,000 are reported to have been captured. The London correspondent of the New York Times quotes reports reaching London from reliable sources as saying that the Chinese Communists are making plans to hold a provisional political Consultative Assembly in June and that this may be followed by the creation of a Communist-led Government in the autumn. Informed quarters in London believe that the Communists will complete their domination of the country from Siberia to Indo-China in the next few weeks.

Shanghai and its millions seem to have swung into- the Communist camp with a rush and not by degrees. Along miles of avenues red flags were flying from every shop and house, and newspapers reversed their policies overnight. South of Soochow Creek, life is returning to normal. Cinemas, which reopened yesterday, were packed. Regular former Kuomintang policemen returned to traffic duties minus arms, but with special red armbands. No casualties were reported among the numerous foreigners, including British and American Consular staffs, who were marooned in the buildings at both ends of the three main bridges across Soochow Creek. In liberated Shanghai trams and buses are running, and victory celebrations are continuing. River traffic between Shanghai and • Pootung has been resumed, while train services along the Nanking-Shanghai railway are expected to restart shortly. These developments should considerably ease the Shanghai food supply situation. In an editorial yesterday the British owned North China Daily News urged foreign communities to reciprocate the courtesy and politeness shown by the Communist soldiers, and to give" all possible assistance to the Communist authorities in running the hig.ilycomplex machinery of the huge metropoli. Flight from Canton William Parrott, the NZPAReuter correspondent in Canton, say> a new rush to evacuate Canton has started with the eclipse of the Nationalist fortunes in Shanghai. T.avei agents estimate that nearly 5000 are leaving every day for Hongkong and Macao alone. Mr Parrott says that Nationahs* military sources predicted that the next major clash between the Com munists and th,e Government forces will be at Chuchow, an important railway junction in Central Hunan. S -ven hundred thousand Communists are now converging on this city, wmch may be the scene of the last important battle before the Communists subjugate the whole of China.