The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-02-17

ASS ' the Reds are giving the Japanese more trouble than any other army in North China.
 Their tactics are simple. They wait until the Japanese have massed their troops for an assault, then disperse. When the Japanese advance, they attack small detach- mentS from the Hanks an drear, destroying communications, out posts, food and ammunition sup plies, and harassing the main body.
 The communists operate princi- pally throughout Shansi under Gen. Gnu Teh, Red Napoleon of China" They are called the 9th Route army and nominally are commanded by Generalissimo Chi ang Kai-shek. But they usually are out of touch with headquarters and operate deep in enemy territory.
 With the rapid conquest of North China by Japan, the communists are pressing for the national gov- ernment to recognize all of its arm- ies into mobile, guerilla units and adopt the Red tactics. Because of the heavy superiority of the Japan csc planes, tanks and guns for po- sitional warfare, the Reds believe that only in this way can the Jap aneSe advance be stopped.
 Chou En-lai, political represen- tative of the 8th Route army and go-between for the Reds and the national government, described the situation to me while the Japenese drove the provincial troops of Gov. Yen HSi-shan before them on their way to Taiyuan.
 The dark, shaven-headed leader, speaking precise schoolbook English, sal the fighting in North China had been bad so far and offered these remedies:
 Reorganization of troops into mobile units to fight independently by attacking the rear and Hanks of the Japanese.
 Reorganization of guerilla war fare on all fronts.
 Reorganization of the people in to partisan groups.
 Chou said frankly that the cen- tral movement did not want to or ganize nor arm the people on the grounds that it would give them too much power.
 He said such organization, how ever, would enable the Chinese troops to obtain quick reinforce ments, food supplies, militia for captured territory, and most important-would set up plain clothes units behind the Japanese lines, makinng it dangerous, if not for the Japanese to ad- vance too far.
 Numerous and constant upriSings in the rear by these organized peas- ants ultimately would wear the Jap anese down and would prevent oc- cupation of very much territory, he 
 Chous aded an interesting side light, which is turning out to be true. He said that when the war began the Chinese leaders figured that the Japanese had divided their plans for conquering North CIllIld ulCO 1OuT oCdBcSs
 Picking, Tientsin and Nankou.
 Kalgal, Tatung, Tsangchow and Paoting.
 Tshchow, Kweisui, Chihchia- chung and aiyuan.
 The Yellow river area.
 By February, all these points in the first three stages had been oc- cupied and the Japanese were ad- vancinng northward and southward between the Yellow and Yangtse rivers.
 Chou also was quite disappointed with the central government for concentrating most of its troops. planes anw guns in the Nanking- Shanghai area and neglecting the north.
 MSINCHOW-The Chinese are putting up a fight in North China at last. They swung 40,000 troops ageinst the Japanese 20 miles up the line from here beyond Hsinkou and drove them back. They were