To the Editor of the "Nonmi-Ciuva Dany News"
Sm—One reads with considerable regret the renewal of conflict between the Kuomintang and the Communist. Party, The New Fourth Route Army have been forcibly banded by Chungking under the charge of the violation of military discipline, The Communist paper in Chungking has been censored to prevent any publication of its opinion, As a counter move, the Communist members of the People's Political Couneit refuse attendance at the meeting now being held in Chungking.
As a private citizen not connected with any party or government, T can express no other opinion on the mat-{ter except one of profound. regret. At such a time of national—erisis, must one still indulge in self-seeking fat the expense of publi good T have always been, and still am, Jan unreserved supporter of Chung: king, But T must say that Chunge king' is quite capable of high-handed [measures as shown in the following case, T have a near relative who pre= viously graduated from the Yenching University, specializing in journalism, He later entered the Central Bank to join business. When war broke out Ju 1987, he was transferred to Chungking, bringing him his family—a wife' and a young son. He retained his interest in journalistic correspondence, Near the end of March 1940, in a private letter to a friend in Kunming dispatched by messenger, he wrote something which savoured of critic ism of government, 'The case was found out and the messenger detain= Jed, "My relative, a responsible man Jas' he is, Immedintely presented him= self before the Authorities concern= Jed, acknowledging the letter to be written by him. "He was put under Jarrest and has been detained ever singe, There has been no trial, All efforts at securing his release have been in vain, He was last reported to be in a place called "Mud Bridge," near Chungking "undergoing train ug." "He is well-treated but strlet= ly confined. Even his wife is not allowed (o see him, In August last year, in a final effort at securing his release, T wrote letter to the Generalissimo, English, calling his kind altentién to this ease and asking him to exert his Influence in favour of justice and humanity. F pointed out to him that my relative's only. quill was uninten~ tional indiscretion in a private letter and that more than four months? confinement was enough punishment for such indiscretion, But, as I fear~ Jed at the beginning, nothing would feome out of such a letter" from a. shameless person, The Generalissimo too busy with the mighty cares of the state to attend to such a trifle, But my relative has now been confined for almost a year's time, His wife and child, all alone in Chung king, still attempting {0 secure his release, are ina pitiable condition, 7 appeal once more to the Authorities Jin Chungking to temper justice with merey in this case and in all similar Jeases in general, Shanghai, Mar, 8,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.