COMMUNISTS FLEE BEFORE CHINA'S NATIONALS

Chronicle (Levin), 5 March 1947, Page 5

COMMUNISTS FLEE BEFORE CHINA'S NATIONALS

Received Tuesday, 7.10 p.m. NANKING, March 3. The National Defence Ministry has declared that 250y000 Communists iare fleeing 'horthwards before advancing Nationalist columns following one of the biggest National victories of the civil war, northeasf of Changchun. Communist headquarters report that Nationaliht forces crossed the Yellow river and were within 50 miles of the Communist capital, Yenan. Despite a general acknowledgment that the Nationalists are abli^ to take any point on which they decide to/oncentrate a force, neutral military circles still regard the most iniportant features of the Chinese civil war as, Pirstly, the vast terrain that niust Ixe policed by the Nationalists; secondly, the refusal of the Red guerrillas to iight pitched battles; thirdly, the iutlationary consequences of supporting' a Nationalist army of 4,900,000. The Communists apparently are still evacuating cities in fac.e of superior forces and are hitting the Nationalists at the weakest points, especialiy along the railways. The Government claimed that the Communists suffered 20,000 casualties. The United Press correspondent says the Communist leader Chou En-lai telegraphed Chiang Kai-sjiek requesting a 25 days' extension to March 31, of the order closing all Communist Jiaison ofiices in Nationalist teffit'ory.