The Pacification Commission of the Peiping government had a lot of trouble in eliminating and reorganiz= ing these numerous local armies. 'They were finally reorganized as 1 Anti-Communist Army and divided into three Route Armies, consisting of three regiments each,' under the command of a former notorious ban-it chief. "The Pirst Route Army is stationed in northern Shantung, the Second in southern Hopel, and the Third in western Shantung.
The third oF Peace Maiiitonance Army is regarded os the orthodox army and is the cream of the Chinese puppet forces in north China. Its Grganization was started in October 1939 under the supervision of the Japanese army authorities and the Japanese gendarmerie, About 19,000 hhien wore enlisted, more or less com= pulsorily, from the larger cities and istrict towns and formed into three corps and two regiments, which are stationed at Peiping, Paoting, salp~ ing (eastern Hopei), Tientsin and Tsinan.
Aller a year's training, they have been employed to fight the Reds since November 1949. In the same month the Pacification Commission started a second enlistment and formed a. fresh army of fourteen Fegiments of between 30,000 and 40,000 men. These regiments are still dargoing training in different places under Japanese officers, Since it has been employed in se~ tive operations in the field, the Peace 'Maintenance Army, according to oM-lal accounts, to the number of 9,700. has been in' action on 50 occasions. when it has altogether inflicted a loss of 150 killed and taken 75 prisoners. (These figures have a strange alt of "truth about them, Such a small tally of killed and prisoners for 50 actions would seem to confirm the report that in the majority of cases where they have come into contact with the enemy, these troops have either deserted 10 the enemy or have run away, unless supported by Japanese troops).
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.