Evening star., 1948-02-23
Chinese RedAifackers
She'll HungrYMukden;
Take Key Road Center
BY the Associofed Press

TSINGTAO. China. Feb. 23.-
Chinese Communist troops
wheeled their big guns close
enough to shake hungry, be-
leaguered Mukden today in Their
steady advance on the heart o1
Manchuria.
Military reports and eyewitness
accounts showed the desperate
plight of the big industrial city.
Government sources in Pei
ping reported another grave set
back-the loss of Faku, As miles
north of Mukden. Its fall tight
ened the Communist blockade of
Mukden and opened the way for
Communist assaults from the
north.)
The Rev. N. o. Dahlsten, Berrien
Springs, Mich, just arrived from
Mukden, said whole families there
were committing suicide for lack OF
food. Month-old children were be-
ing fed millet-a rough Manchurian
cereal.
The Seventh Day Adventist mis-
sionary said Mukden was shaking
to the bombardment of big guns.
He said the Communists evidently
will try to capture and hold Muk-
den.
Air Base Attacked.
Other reports told Of Communist
attacks on a government air base
only a mile and a half from Muk-
den. The Chinese air force halted
all its flights to Mukden. The
United States State Department
advised all dependents of its con-
sular personnel to leave there at
once.
Fighting was reported in the
suburbs of Penki (PenhsihW, a
major source of Mukden's coal sup
ply. The mining center is IS miles
southeast of Mukden. The Com
munists already had cut the rail
line between the two points.
Small Communist movements in
the direction of Fushun, great coal
town 20 miles east of Mukden, also
we're mentioned in pro-government
Faku Key Highway. City.
Reporting the loss of Faku, the
termed it a strategic
Government forces
took up new positions to the south.
The town had been under Com
munist siege off and on for five
A key highway city, it
guarded the western fanks of the
trunkline rail towns of Tiehling and
40 and IS miles north of
Mukden.
(Peiping, meanwhile, heard that
Communist troops were moving to-
ward the port of Yinkow from newly
won Anshan, steel-producing center
National dispatches estimated nine
divisions were involved. Chinese
correspondents predicted the Com
munists would try to strike simul-
taneously against Fushun and
Yingkow.
CThe same sources reported
the continued arrival Of govern
ment troops and supplies at
Yingkow. Other reports said the
government intended to send
two more divisions to Manchuria
from Shanghai.)
DR.. Dahlsten, describing condi-
tions in Mukden, said there was no
was to escape except by airplane.
Soldiers bar persons seeking to
leave by mulecart.
Coal Supply Gone. .@
DR.. Dahlsten said coal was not
for sale in Mukden any longer. All
were almost out of
reach. Flour, for instance, cost $18
Tor an eight-pound bag. 1nfrequent
food shipments into the town are
made under heavy guard. Two or
,hree policemen are stationed at
Zach Mukden street corner.
DR.. Dahlsten said the Communists
will try to capture and
1old Mukden. He said a Russian
radio broadcast heard in Mukden
made it plain that the Chinese Reds
will move into Mukden to assure
heir control of the railroad. The
line runs from Soviet-garrisoned
Port Arthur and Dairen northward
through Mukden and Changchun to
Siberia.
Commercial airlines still were op-
Grating from other fields in the
flight area. Six flights
we're scheduled today to remove all
emaining foreigners except consular
taffs.
Also scheduled for evacuation by
air today were 81 British mission
aries and six members Of the Brit
ch An, orinoy Tcho reo ~