COMMUNIST FORCES THRUST DEEP INTO TIBET TERRITORY

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 November 1950, Page 5

COMMUNIST FORCES THRUST DEEP INTO TIBET TERRITORY

NEW DELHI, Nov. 5 (Recd. 8 p.m.).—Chinese Communist columns were last night thrusting deep into Tibet, one less than 100 miles from Lhasa, according to a Peking radio broadcast. In addition to the three columns moving through eastern Tibet towards Lhasa and Shigatse, a fourth has crossed the north-western frontier from Khotan in the Sinkiang province, and advanced between 100 and 150 miles— half-way to Gartok on Tibet’s south-western border. An authoritative Tibetan sources at Kalimpong said last night that the country had “almost entirely gone over to Red China.” They added that the opposition group supporting Panchen Lama, who claims spiritual leadership of Tibet’s 30,000,000 people and who has been reported moving into Tibet with the Chinese forces, had seized control of the Government in Lhasa after the flight of the Dalai Lama. This opposition group, headed by Sawong Lama—most senior monk at Lhasa— “desires an early settlement of Tibet’s relations with Communist China." The opposition group has been demanding land reform in Tibet. The 16-year-old Dalai Lama has quit Lhasa with 50 officials including members of his cabinet. He is expected to go to northern India.