Anhui, May 21, 'The war against the' communi army in Anhui has reached alarming stage. In spite of the of soldiers sent by: the eat ty relieve the ver erable section of the 46U vision whicn was. surrounded Sukiapu in western Anhui by. Reds, they arrived. too Into." The army had been subsisting on two wine glasses of cooked rice per day fand at last surrendered, The oticer charge is. reported to have. seized and held" by the veda for Fansom.. The Reds then finding that {he soldiers had not been paid for months, divided the ransom among the" soldiers. of the regiment and Yhrse. who wished to return. home were allowed to dot after deliver Ing. their guns to the red oticers. Mfrne army advancing to the relief of the besieged was proceeding im three columns; the 58th regiment on tone wing, apart of the ith in. the entre and another part of the 46th the other wing. "The Reds now made a sudden attack and the 46th was completely "routed," The 55th Mise fell back, and this left the 7th Advancing. - When the 46th fed from the feld this loft the th fighting in fan' extremely" dangerous "position, they were surrounded and many men Killed, The "whole army was, compelled to retreat, leaving, the wh OF the country from Suchiapu to a sition, some. twenty miles from uuchowtu in the huni of he Reds. A'State of panic followed. dhe Reds were reported advancing" on Luchowfu,, Pengja and." Chenyangikuun, Thousands of people fled. from {heir homes fearing both the advancing Fede and the retreating scattered 'AE the time of writing reinforeements. are arriving from Pengp, Wahu and "Anching ferent routes "The "Reds captured immense amount' of ammunition, arms and supplies during the recent engagements, which of course Was their reason for making the attack. They are now reported a3 retiring to their more mountainous, sections to await the expected attack by the government army which, judging by {he numbers of soldiers now stream ing into this section, may be expect-t0: come shortly.
During the many years hat the reds have made theit- headquarters in western Anbu), they have never yet been seriously attacked by. the government army. The government Kiss always played into the hands of the Reds, by quartering a large army. of whar many consider halt bandits already in the neighbouring cities, The Reds immediately" start Propaganda among the government minies so" that by the lime any started the army" feel seizing with the Reds than fighting them, hem, Very large numbers. of wounded "have been coming back from the front. Several hundred have already arrived in Wuhu,, the total wounded amounts to several thousand men. An- even more blow. to: the government is the scattering of the army, especially of the 48th which is reported entirely scattered and wandering over the: country: im small detachments, This extremely serious condition it will inevitably lead. to. serious Vanditry '-anless:-ithe. government, takes immediate. measures ta, venteitiss 3 2 (\Paeaieces reported that the government is going £0 take very vigorous measures against the communists. Jand that soldiers are to be sent to the district wine will actually fight inst them. It 1s hard to believe ix will cetwally be done, but Jsince it is said that General Chiang, Kai-shek will shortly proceed to Luchowfu to see that some definite action is taken we still have hopes that the Reds will be stopped. This. ime the Reds actually reached a but little more than one hundred miles from Nanking, and jas they have been doing much propaganda work they are being Feeeived more readily by the popula~ tion than was. the case when they adopted a policy of violence and Some efforts are being made by the Magistrate of Chaohsien to stop banditry on Chao Lake Over 'S twenty boatloads of bandits are reported as having been seen on the lake. Certainly many boats on the ake have been prrated by bandits. The Chaohsien magistrate took a
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