PROTESTS IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24912, 27 June 1946, Page 5

PROTESTS IN CHINA

Presence of U.S. - Forces x

MILITARY AID OPPOSED (Rec. 8 p.m.) SHANGHAI, June 25. Dr. Tao Heng-chi, spokesman for 54 anti-civil war groups, demanded that the United States forces should quit China and that America should cease all aid to China. Dr. Tao expressed the opinion that Marshal Chiang Kaishek wants civil war and peace would be hastened by removing the Government’s advantage over the Communists afforded by American aid. In the meantime the charges by the Communist leader, Mao Tse-tung, that the United States forces in China had become a grave menace to national peace and security, are causing grave concern at the headquarters of the United States Ambassador (General G. C. Marshall). One informant pointed out that America’s military aid bill now before Congress was drafted with a view to helping both sides.

Other American sources described Dr. Tao’s statement as "outright propaganda designed to influence American opinion.” In Washington a State Department spokesman, commenting on Mao Tsetung’s request that the United States should cease all military aid to the Chinese Central Government and evacuate the American forces, said the United States forces were there at the request of the Chinese Government to help it to evacuate the Japanese forces of which there were still considerable numbers in China. That was the sole purpose of the presence of American forces in China.