WAR IN MANCHURIA CHINESE GENERAL’S REVIEW

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 December 1947, Page 8

WAR IN MANCHURIA CHINESE GENERAL’S REVIEW

Nanking, Dec. 22. The present Communist “multipronged” onslaught on the Government positions in south-west Manchuria was the beginning of their seventh offensive, but it would meet the same miserable fate as the Communists’ sixth offensive in November, said General Chin Teh, acting Minister of National Defence, at a Government party caucus. The Communist strategy, he claimed, was aimed at isolating Mukden from North China. A warning of things to come from the Communists in Manchuria was given by General Chen Tung-kuo, deputy commander in Manchuria, in an interview. General Chen, who is visiting Marshal Chiang Kai-shek to report on the military situation In the north-east, said the Communists had between 500,000 and 600,000 wellequipped troops in Manchuria. They were using weapons captured trom the Japanese and in the near future might be strongly supported by aircraft left by the Japanese. The Communists would feel the full weight of the Nationalist ground and air forces, and Government paratroops would be more than a match for the Communist suicide squacs which had been causing havoc in the Government cor :munications. It was apparent, he said, that the Communists were employing Russians as advisers, though the Government forces had never captured any Russians in Manchuria. The Nationalists urgently needed munitions, which, with the Communist control of see. and rail communications, had now to be carried by air. Dispatches from Mukden report heavy fighting in western Liaoning, wher large forces of Communists have crossed the Changchun railway near Sinmin and Changwu, and large sections of the Mukden-Chinchow railway have been destroyed. Though military observers in Nanking hold no immediate fears for Mukden, thev admit that the next two weeks will be most critical for the Government forces in Manchuria.