CO129-619-1 Parliamentary delegation to China 1-9-1947 - 23-12-1947 — Page 88

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'.

In February,

Nationalist and one Communist member. This committeo

appointed "field-teams" whose duty it was to put

into effect in the various areas all agreements

dealing with the cessation of hostilities.

1946, there followed a further agreement which

included a scheme for orging and demobilising the

Kuomintang and Communist armios - rogarded by tho

National Government as the crux of the whole problem.

6. The high hopes of a lasting settlement which

had been raised by these decisions were unfortunately

not fulfilled. The formation of a coalition governm..

was held up by haggling over percentages of

representation and allotment of portfolios.

Agreement

proved impossible on the application of the armistice

agreement to Manchuria, and fighting broke out in that

area and subsequently spread to China proper. No

attempt was meanwhile made to proceed with the scheme

for the merging of tho Kuomintang and Communist armies.

7.

The deep-seated and mutual distrust between

the Kuomintang and the Communist would probably have

prevented agreement in any case, but the Communists

were strengthened in their attitude at this time by

events in Manchuria. The Soviet troops who had

occupied that area on Russia's entry into the war in

1945 finally evacuatod in „pril, 1946. In withdrawing

they handed over control of the evacuation areas to

the first arrivals, and in most cases these were

Chinese Communist units, which had been infiltrating

into Manchuria from China proper since the end of the

war. It is generally accepted that this was done by

arrangement. In this way Communist forces, with

/ Soviet

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