COMMUNISTS SHELL TIENTSIN AREAS

Wanganui Chronicle, 7 January 1949, Page 5

COMMUNISTS SHELL TIENTSIN AREAS

CHIANG S APECE OFFER HAS BEEN REJECTED

NANKING, Jan. 6 (Reed- 11pm).— Chinese Communists today began shelling Government positions around Tientsin, after having rejected Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s peace offer, says the Associated Press correspondent.

Artillery fire broke the two weeks’ lull on China’s battlefronts. Newspapers in Shanghai said the Communist attack near Tientsin seemed to be mounting in intensity. Reuter's correspondent says a Tientsin garrison spokesman last night disclosed severe fighting proceeding at Huitui, a south-eastern suburb of Tientsin.

Describing the situation as serious, the spokesman declared that all defence arrangements were completed dealing with all possibilities. Conditions at Tangku and Peiping were described as quiet except for minor skirmishes.

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 6 (Recd. 8 pm).—ln a broadcast heard in San Francisco today, Chinese Communists threatened a general assault on Peiping, Tientsin and Tangku, the three remaining Government-held cities in North China but guaranteed the safety of the lives and property of General Fu Tso-Tmi. the Nationalist commander tn North China, and of his officers and men, provided they surrendered immediately.

The Communists have branded Fu Tso-Tmi a "war criminal,” but today's broadcast said the Communist army would “permit him to atone for his sins" if h e surrendered.