NEW COMMUNIST STRIKE

Chronicle (Levin), 9 November 1948, Page 5

NEW COMMUNIST STRIKE

( N.Z.P.A. -

—Reuter,

Passenger Train Attacked Near Nanking

Copyright)

Received Tuesday, 10.55 a.m. NANKING, Nov. 8. The Communists today struck within 39 miles of Nanking, when they mined and attacked a passenger train near Changpoling, on the Tientsin-Pukow- railway, northwest of Nanking. Two passengers were killed and six wounded when the train was machine-gunned after the explosion had destroyed large sections of the railway track. In Shanghai, near panic reigned among the 5,000,000 Chinese population today when rice was virtually unobtainable even af ' the fantastic price of 900 gold yuan per picul (170 lbs.), which is a rise of 400 yuan in the last 24 hours. The explosive nature of the Shanghai situation can be gauged from the fact that the average labourer's pay is between 100 and 150 gold yuan monthly. Although hrms are granting "bonuses" (the present. regulations prohibit wage increases), employees' remuneration is generally still lagqfing several hundred per cent behind prices. In an effort to allay the growing panic, the Mayor, Mr. K. C. Wu, announced that 42,000 tons of rice was en route to China, but gave no date for its arrival. . In Nanking, where Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek has repeated for the second time in a few hours the inflexible determination .of the Nationalist Government to fight on until ultimate victory, it is ofncially yeported that the Government -orces had three important successes in the vital Hsuchow— Pengpu sector, wheje the battle for Central China is developing.