GREATLY OUTNUMBERED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26619, 15 November 1947, Page 3

GREATLY OUTNUMBERED

CHINESE GOVERNMENT FORCES PEIPING, Nov. 12. The Communists capture.d the important rail junction of Shihkiachwang, according to official btit private reports received at Peiping, says the Associated Press. The Communists, who greatly outnumbered the Government troops, are reported to have smashed the last core of resistance—a ring of tanks inside which a group of defenders fought to the end. Shihkiachwang presumably will become an essential link in the corridor tfhich the Communists are trying to establish between Northern ' Shantung and

Northern Shensi provinces. The city is rich in weapons, industrial machinery, cotton and other goods which the Communists vitally need. With Shinkiachwang in their hands the Communists can now seriously threaten two northern provincial capitals, Pauting in Hopei, and Taiyuan in Shansi. Government reports from Chingking claim the lifting of the month-long Communist siege of Kirin. During the lighting there in the past few weeks the Government forces claim to have inflicted more than 70,000 casualties. including 20,000 dead. The siege of the Yulin bastion on the ShensiSuiyuan border, which is entering the nineteenth day, is expected to be lifted as soon as Government reinforcements arrive.