CHINESE COMMUNISTS MAKE DARING RAIDS

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5328, 14 February 1947, Page 5

CHINESE COMMUNISTS MAKE DARING RAIDS

(Press Assn —

APPROACHING PEPING GROWING STRENGTH OF FIGHTING FORCE

-Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

NLW YOKK, Feb. 13. Commimist forces have made two daring raids on "Tung Chow, seven miles east of Peiping since Monday. To-day they seized the' East railway station and pushed toward the ' South station through which the PeipingTientsin railway passes. In the first raid the Communists set the Government buildings on fire and freed 68 prisoners from gaol. Thej? infiicted easualties before retiring in- the face of a Government relief force. ^ These attacks are the nearest any sizeable Communist force has apnroached to Peiping in many months. It is taken as an indication of the Communists' grc-wing strength and also their ability to strike quickly and retire safelv against superior but iess mobile Government troops. Yesterday's report that the Communists raided Peiping was -wrong. The attack was against Tung Chow and the United Press correspondent in Peiping said that ' Communist guerillas scaled the northern walls of Tung Chc'W under eover of "night and held the town for five bours before being ousted by Nationalist reinforcements and armoured cars from Peiping.

At least 100 police, soldiers and Government employees were killed. The harried Government leaders held an emergency conference in the wake of the daring raid. The Chinese newspapers have. reported that the buildings set c-n fire included the gaol, the police station, the railway depot, the water tower, supply offices, an army hospital aud r. miiitary establishment. Dollar Makes Unexpected Partial Recovery NEW YORK, Feb. 13. The Chinese dollar after falling t- 19,000 to one United States dollar recovered to-day to 13,000 and is now being held at that rate, says the Associated Press Shanghai correspondent. No one ean explain the reason for the recovery. (The official exchange rate is 3350 Chinese to one American dollar). Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek told tffe Kuomintang central executive that he was confident the Gov- • ernment could cope. adequately with Ihe ffnancial crisis. The Premier, Mr T. V. Scong, conferred with the Minister of Finance, Mr. Ok Yiu, and the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Pei Tsu-vee, after which the Minister of Information, Mr. Peng Ilsueh-pei, announced that adequate measures were being taken to meet the crisis. He told pressmen that China's eccipomic trouble was a deep-rooted disease resulting% from 10 years of war with the Japanese and the Communists. He predieted that this year would be the most difficult on the road to economic convalescence. The New York Times Nanking correspondent says a crumbling economic situation confronts the Chinese Government with the gravest crisis it, has experienced since the low ebb of its fortunes in the autumn of 1894 in the first war with Japan.