First signa that the Communists contemplated a concerted move into Kansu~and possibly {urther—folow. fed the arrival in Szechuan of repres natives of General Chiang Kai-shek and the return there from Nanking of General Liu Hsiang. Half-hearted attempts to dislodge the Reds who had occupied the north-eastern cor riner of the province, with headquarters at Pochow, had been made by the local generals, but without any appreciable result. With the arrival of men from General Chiang's het quarters, however, the. campaign was taken up in earnest, and the Com: munists immediately' gave ground.
Evacuating Pochow, they moved over the border of Shensi, considerably harassed by a division of Suz chuan troops at Kuangyuan on their flank. In Shensi they moved westward and, according to the latest reports, have occupied the cities of 'Ningkiang and Tenghsien, both near the Kansu border. 'Their' main body is in the area between these two cities, May Invade Yunnan They have another alternative to invade Yunnan in a southerly direction. While this would put them even further away from their comrades making for Kansu, st would undoubtedly be a profitable venture until the Government and Yunnanese troops made it impossible. For Yunnan yields a great revenue in opium, and they might be able to Ail their deplenished coffers in a very short time, That they should go south is not considered by competent obseryers to be probable, but it 4s a possibility that is being borne in mind.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.