Communist Army Joins With Nanking

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 208, 18 September 1937, Page 5

Communist Army Joins With Nanking

-United Press Association—

POLITICAL UNDERTAKING GIVEN

By Electrlc Telegrapli—

-Copyriglit.

{Received 18, 8.45 a.m.) NANKING, Sept. ,17. In an interview beginning at the Communist delegation's headquarters and ending in a bombproof dug-out, when Japancse warplanes flew over, General Yeh Chine Nhing, Chief of Staff of the Eighth Route Army, formerly a Communist force and reputed to be the best fighters in China, stated that he had given allegiance to the Nanking Government and had placed his troops and organisation at its disposal against the Japanese. General Yeh recalled that Marshal Chiang Kai-ishek tten years fought the Communist Army, which successfully resisted continuous attacks and secured control of Shansi, JKansu and other regions, which Nanking has now agreed shall be organised as special administrative areas, with due consideration for their former status, while the Communist Party may nominate candidates for the China-wide forthcoming elections for the People's Congress. The agreement is regarded as a significant step toward unity fn the forces of China, and is considered to be a blow for the Japanese. " A Domei Agendy report from Tokio says that the Japanese have deployed on a 50-mile front in the North China war zone and are convtfrging on Paotingfu. They claim to have broken the Chinese first line at several 'points and are now attacking the second line, connecting Paoting, Jungcheng, and Hiunghsien. They also claim to have already occupied Chochow and Laiyuan. Complete domination of the air in North China is claimed by Japan. An earlier message from London said that the Japanese bombed Canton from the air. It is believed that there were very heavy native casualties. A message from Tientsin states that the Japanese claim to have captured 100,000 square miles of territory in North China — mostly unsettled country.