ANXIOUS WATCH

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 196, 17 May 1944, Page 7

ANXIOUS WATCH

Domestic Situation In China ECONOMIC, MILITARY AND POLITICAL (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) LONDON, May 15. Reports that China is nearing military, economic, and political collapse are becoming one of the major worries of the United States war chiefs, says the Washington correspondent, of the "Daily Mail.” Confidential reports by United States officers have sounded a note of serious alarm. Their findings have been backed up by President Chiang Kai-shek, who has made a personal appeal to President Roosevelt for more aid. The correspondent adds: "Responsible military leaders in Washington go as far as to say that if (he leader of the United States Fourteenth Air Force in China, Major-General Chennault, is forced to withdraw because of lack of supplies, not even Marshal Chiang Kai-shek and his iron-willed wife could keep China in the war any longer. “China’s economic situation, with the existing inflation, is approaching that of Germany after the last war. China’s military and political difficulties, to which Washington has so far turned a blind eye, are becoming so great that they cannot be ignored any longer. “Blockading” Army. “China has an army of 500,000 tied up in southern Shensi province, where Chiang Kai-shek has been blockading the Communist armies of north-west China for three years. This army is needed to defend Honan Province against the new Japanese threat, but unless Chiang Kaishek comes to terms with the Communists it will not be available. “That President Roosevelt Regards the position seriously is shown by his decision to send the Vice-President, Mr. Henry Wallace, to make a report and put the Unifed States view to President Chiang Kai-shek. Every possible effort will be made to keep China in tlie war till the Allied Pacific forces can land on the China coast. A collapse before that would gravely interfere with the strategy of the whole Pacific and Far Eastern campaigns. It would add many more months, and possibly years, to the war.”