CO129-566-14 Union of Democratic Control forwards copy of Notes from China 14-12-1938 - 14-12-1938 — Page 11

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GENERAL CHANG

given

C H I NES E

KAI-SHEK'S

to the

MESSAGE

PE O P L E

November 1st, 1938

10

J

"For more than five months the Chinese forces have fought heroically and courageously on the Yangtze front, supported solidly by the people in the rear. This has had the result of inflicting upon the Japanese forces greater losses than those which she suffered during the first ten months of the war.

"In order to cover up the check to the Yangtze campaign, the Japanese forces have, in despair, embarked upon the advent- ure of the invasion of China in the south, extending in this way the sphere of hostilities. I wish to underline two princi- pal points concerning the military situation in the past and its outcome in the future.

"First, the people should understand the significance of the possession or the loss of Hankow in the war in general. The principal base of the Chinese resistance during the war does not rest in the coastal regions or along the rivers, but in the vast hinterland, and especially in the western provinces. This has been the fundamental strategy of a prolonged resistance and of the policy determined upon by the National Government.

"The principal aim of the defence of Hankow was to protect the work of reconstruction in the west of China. It was also to slow up the Japanese advance towards the west and to exhaust the fighting power of the enemy so that all this time communi- cations might be developed in the west of China, that armaments might be concentrated and that all the industries from central and south-eastern China might be transported to the south-west and north-west of China. Finally, only a rational development in the south-west and north-west could form a solid basis for prolonged resistance and for national reconstruction.

Only adequate development of a means of communication in the south- west and north-west can consolidate material strength and provide the necessary reserves for prolonged resistance.

"Now that all available resources in men and material have been transported to the interior and that developments in the west of China allow us to face up to the primary necessities for a basis of resistance, the plans for a national resistance on all fronts can be carried out, rather than fighting the enemy at particular points.

"In the defence regions outside Hankow the Chinese forces have already dealt a serious blow to the Japanese forces, and