The Evening Star (October 22, 1946)
Reds and Nationalists spar for position in new China peace talk
NANKING (AP) – Chinese government and Communist negotiators today turned their peace meeting into a sparring match for position as the government pressed preparations to administer areas seized from the Reds.
Gen. George C. Marshall and American Ambassador John Leighton Stuart, resuming active roles, conferred with minority party leaders whose proposals succeeded in returning the Communist negotiator, Chou En-lai, to Nanking.
The Reds clung stubbornly to their demands for restoration of territory the government has seized since the quickly broken January truce and for acceptance of political pacts which never were put into effect.
Communist spokesman Wang Ping-nan, who yesterday saw “no reason for optimism,” said his party’s maximum concessions are acceptance of those agreements “which are far from terms the government delegates are willing to accept.”
Red currency outlawed
The Supreme National Defense Council, outlining the government’s policies for areas captured from the Communists, outlawed Communist currency as “illegally issued bank notes.” It ordered proclamations to that effect posted in each area seized from the Reds.
Another measure restores lands seized by the Communists to their original owners.
In Shanghai, the government began mobilizing resources of China’s two civil air transport lines to carry delegates to Nanking for the National Assembly, scheduled to open there November 12. The Communists and China’s minority parties have announced they will not send delegates to the Assembly unless peace is restored.
Vandegrift is reserved on Marines in China
PEIPING (AP) – Gen. A. A. Vandegrift, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, today refused to answer, “Why are the Marines still in North China?” or any questions pertaining to corps policy.
He told a press conference their duties are training and guarding their own installations and some surplus property the United States has not yet turned over to the Chinese government.
The general, making his first inspection tour of North China since peace, termed isolated Communist attacks on Marines “regrettable,” but refused to elaborate.