Little Damage In City

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27213, 17 October 1949, Page 5

Little Damage In City

Canton had suffered little damage when General Chep-keng’s regulars, totalling approximately 20,000, marched into the city yesterday, according to evacuees who reached Hongkong. The Cantonese were impressed by the discipline of these troops. A small number of Nationalist troops who were wandering around in one of the city’s main streets was disarmed by the Communists.

Harbour yesterday. She arrived in Hongkong to-day with three dead and 22 wounded on board, all Chinese. Passengers said 20 shells were fired and the ship received one direct hit The shelling was believed to. have been by Communists, who were firing on Amoy Island from the Fukien mainland. \

British military, naval and air forces in Hongkong, estimated to total more than 30,000, are continuing their normal training, which has been in progress for the past few months. A high-ranking military source said there had been no startling speeding up of this training since the occupation of Canton, as its fall had been expected Police were still controlling the frontier and the military would not be called in unless actual trouble breaks out. Field-marshal Sir William Slim. Chief of the Imperial General Staff, is expected to meet General J. Lawton Collins, United States Chief of Staff, in Hongkong on October 28, according to a foreign source. General Collins’s visit to the colony is part of his general tour of United States garrisons in the Pacific.

Restaurants and shops have reopened, and the city bus services are functioning. All the Chinese newspapers, except the Kuomintang organ, the Central Daily News, have resumed publication. The Chinese vessel, Kpihwa, made a dash down Pearl River last night after the Communists had occupied the city. The vessel, which carried a large number of Chinese, reached Hongkong to-day. A Nationalist warship intercepted the ship in the river but allowed it to proceed after identification.

The evacuees reported that the Nationalists had destroyed the Pearl River bridge in Canton and that a large fire was raging in the vicinity of the Canton-Hankow railway station at Wongsha. The fire was started by Nationalist shells from the north bank of Canton Harbour. „ . . . . The Fatshan, the last British river steamer out of Canton before its occupation by the Communists, arrived in Hongkong yesterday packed with avacuees. Excited Chinese, fought frantically on the wharf at Canton to -*t on board the Fatshan They were handled roughly by an efficient police guard, which was still functioning normally. ; • , . The British coastal steamer Anhui was fired on as she was leaving Amoy