PEOPLE DISMAYED

Chronicle (Levin), 5 June 1947, Page 5

PEOPLE DISMAYED

v Press Assn

Repressive Measures Taken In China

By TelemavTi

■.-Cavvriaht

Received Wednesday, -7. 50 p/.m, . , NEW YORK, June 3. The scope and vioienee of the Chinesq Government 'a repressive measures against students and other opponeius during the past f'QVtnight., mark» tlu, einployment of methods of rule charac teristic of the worst periods of the tvuomintang dietatorship, says th New York Times 's Nanking corres ' pondent. All the old in.sfcvumentalitie> and practiees of a modern police state— oppression, seeret » police,' infonners Uired thugs, pre-dawn bedraom arrests large scale gaolings, martial Ihav and censorship— have been brought int ase. The Government actions have shock ed many foreign observers in Nanking and promise to alienate and autagonisi •large sections of the more politieallv conseious Chinese people. ■ The arrests. shootings and beatings of students are vvidely lygarded as particularly un .justiiied and uwieeessary, The students who in modern China are a most aensitive barometer of popular senti oieut, have been the instruments fo,r ixpressing a widespread desire for ■ peace and relief froxn the near starva cion k-vel of existencc. at which mos* 'hinese these days are living, There s probably some Communist and other teflwing iiumipulation of the studeni .iiovements. but professors and othei'i •lose to the students feel it is pontaneous and noniiolitieal. Observers agree that the way the Government has handled the studeni .novement lias turned many students ! heretofore neutral, into Communist ;ympathisers, Many of the 'democratie *ains of the Central Government in the aist year oi- two, have beeu wiped out Guring the last few weeks, the Chinese people have leamed to their dismay hut they live aimost everywhere undtu aartial law which can be invokeo ipparently at any -time with the resultant canceliation of many of the .enuous civil liberties won in recen; limes. 0 Journalists all over Kuomintang China foar that the direct censorship will soon become nationwide., The intimidation of personnel and rationing of newsprint has already been used as a means of coutrolling the press. Recent events have shown that the real pattern of power and control has not been changed in the Centrai Government despite new faces brought into the regime. Observers see the recent lieavv handed Governmeni actions as largcly motivated by 'feai The anti-Communist offensive is making little progress, the ecQnomic situation igetting worse and tlie Government i' becoming increasinly pttoi-y and ur certain about the future.