Kuomintang -Communist Clash

‘Right:

ace covered with blood, a Japanese naval lieutenant emerges from hiding (left) to
er to waiting Yanks on Okinawa, after listening to a broadcast made by | a Japanese
Enemy officer immediately after capture.

k market”’
+ there is much hush-hush
‘ecy about this black mar-
es have come to the at-
; of this reporter revealing
¢i:ants are being forced to
r 100 percent above the
rental value of homes in
So rétain their tenancy.
fds guilty of jacking up
el secure in the fact that,
fa they have broken hous-
is by surreptiously increas-
its as the crisis became
cute, tenants in most cases
villing to face prosecution
jing the increase. The re-
-s been that tenants are
to pay higher and higher
jor the same accommoda-
, face eviction.

, that federal authorities
ved to stop evictions it
j that cases of black mar-
in rentals were investi-
Present information re-
hat the majority of rent-
ailing is taking place in
iwntown area. In at least
se the tenants are paying
0 “kick-in” on top of the
monthly increased rent.
senants are therefore pay-
J.00 monthly for a home
sought the landlord an in-
only $20.00 per month be-
war. This represents an
e of 150 percent over the
1 rental value.

addition to the abeve case,
are others in which land-
Sof suites and apartments
E:ut down services and at
me time increased rentals.
-aSe on record reveals that
edlord of a tenement building
> downtown area was receiv-
=2.00 per month for a two-
"Suite. New tenants moved

FE) — PACIFIC ADVOCATE

bige City Landlords Operate
ick Market In Housing Crisis

ith the immediate threat of eviction removed from many tenants throughout Van-
and with attention focused on the City Council’s measures to relieve the housing
considerable interest has been created by charges levelled at landlords of operating
in housing rentals.

in and he charged $15.00 per
month. By various subterfuges
which included gas, furniture, in-
creased costs, etc.; this landlord
has jacked the rent of the same
two-room~suite up to $20.00 per
month. This represents an in-
crease of 60 percent over the ori-
ginal rental.

Landlords have been protected
by the fact that people have been
so badly in need of housing ac-
commodation that they are will-
ing to overlook rental increases
in. order to retain or to secure a
place to live. They have also been
protected by the fact that once
a tenant has paid the increased
rental he is unwilling to ‘face
prosecution for not reporting the
increase in the first place.

There is a need for a full-dress
investigation of rentals charged
in the crowded downtown tene-
ment district. Throughout the
whole area, the most crowded
possibly of any city in Canada,
workers with little knowledge of
the laws protecting them are be-
ing exploited by unscrupulous
housing sharks.. The black mar-
keteers have played on ignorance
of the law and fear of eviction
in the severe housing shortage
to clean up by operating a soft
and safe racket.

It is time that controls on the
victims of this rent racketeering
were relaxed, and the authorities
open an offensive against ruth-
Jess landlords guilty of making a
killing in housing. Cases that
are known should be reported and
guilty landlords prosecuted to the
full degree of the law. Eviction
can no longer be used as a- wea-

pon to frighten tenants into pay-
ing jacked up black market rents.
The black market in rentals
must be stopped.
FRED WILMOT.

NEW YORK—WwWith the

of Gen. Hu Chungnan’s central
government troops were moved
from the Japanese front to the
southern border of the Commun-
ist led Shensi-Kansi Ninghsia
Border Region, where the clash
took place. Half a million Ku-
emintang troops have blockaded
the Border Region for five years,

cutting it off from all outside
provinces.
The Communist-led Eighth

Route and New Fourth armies
number over 900,000 regulars,
supported by more than 2,000,000
volunteer guerillas of the
People’s Militia. Ninety percent
of these are behind the Japan-
ese lines and the actual Border
Region defense garrison has no
more than 80,000 regulars and
150,000 militiamen.

The Kuomintang troops have
superiority in armament, but a
visit by myself and other foreign
correspondents to both sides of
the blockade line last summer
convinced us that their supply
system was corroded by graft
and their morale was very seri-
ously undermined by enforced in-
activity during all the years of
the Sino Japanese war. Even
long exposure to civil war propa-
ganda has failed to rouse their
enthusiasm for attacking their
own countrymen.

The Border Region garrison
forees, on the other hand, are
composed of veterans with many
years’ experience of warfare in

British Labor

Party Victory

Greeted By U.S. Unionists

By et Men JENKINSON
NEW YORK—tThe Labor party’ s sweeping victory in

the British general election w
sections of “US. labor as a
Sidney Hillman, chairman of the
CIO Political Action Committee,

called the result ‘“‘an occasion for
rejoicing” not only in the Brit-
among
and progressive

ish Commonwealth but
labor, liberal

forces everywhere.
“The British

elections are

bound to nit the ties among the

three great powers, the United
States, Britain and the Soviet
Union,’ Hillman said. ‘The re-

sults parallel the successful ef-
and progressive
in 1944.
spur

forts of labor
forces in this country
The victory will certainly
our hopes and_ efforts in this
country in 1945 and 1946.

On behalf of the 600,000 mem-
New York
Joseph Curran,
president, and Saul Mills, secre-
Labor
welcome
sign of the growing strength of
the labor and progressive forces
in building a postwar Europe of
The people of Europe
will rightly judge the votes of

bers of the Greater
CIO Council,

declared that the
victory “is a

tary,
party’s

free people.

&
yw

as hailed by spokesmen for all
spus to progress in America.

the English people as a promise
for greater unity among the
United Nations in protecting and
advancing the victory over fas-
cism.” ,

In the absence of CIO presi-
dent Philip Murray, a spokesman
at the CIO national headquart-
ers in Washington stated that
the results would “Shave an ex-
cellent effect on the American
people and encourage all pro-
gressive forces.”

Spokesmen for the AFL, whose
leadership is on record as en-
dorsing the system of private
enterprise, were not so numer-
ous. AFL president Wm. Green
however, declared that Labor’s
victory “must be interpreted as
the outcome of the insistent de-
mand of British workers to gain
higher standards of living and a
greater degree of economic and
social security. The same aspir-
ations for a better life after the
grim experiences of war are mov-
ing workers in our own country.”

Heightens Threat Of Gvil War

Inspired Provocation
Causes Chinese Crisis

renewed outbreak of fighting

between Communist and Kuomintang troops recently, re-
ported by Chungking and Yenan, China again faces a major
civil war threat. The Yenan radio reported that nine divisions

the rear of the enemy—the hard-
est kind of warfare there is. It
is the considered opinion of all
correspondents and other observ-
ers who have first-hand experi-
ence of the situation that they
are superior to the Kuomintang
as a fighting force.

The appeal for the cessation of
hostilities addressed to General-

‘issimo Chiang Kai-chek by Gen-

eral Chu Teh, Eighth Route
Army Commander-in-Chief, in-
dicates that the chief concern of
the Chinese Communists is to
avoid the spread of civil war,
which would furnish Tokyo with
the best possible reason for con-
tinuing its war against the Al-
lies. Japan has been trying to
provoke ¢ivil war in China since
1937. The outbreak of a civil
war would not only rid’ her of
worries about her continental
flank, but encourage her to hope
for serious trouble between the
United States and Russia.

EIGHTH ROUTE ARMY

The effectiveness of the Eighth
Route Army against the Japan-
ese in North China can be judg-
ed from the Japanese North
China, summary communique
published in the Tokyo Asahi on
January 15, 1944, which stated:
“Our major enemy has been the
Communist army. Seventy-five
percent of our engagements last

year were fought against the
Communist forces.” The Japan-
ese Political Monthly, .at the
same time, wrote: The major

hindrances to peace in Eastern
Asia is no longer Chungking,
but the Communist Army whose
stubbornness far surpasses the
Chungking army.”

Gen. Joseph Stilwell and other
American army men have in-
sisted on equal treatment of Kuo-
mintang and Communist forces
in the matter of lend-lease sup-
plies as a necessity for success-
ful land warfare against Japan.
Chiang Kai-shek has consistently
blocked this and American policy
has acquiesced to his wishes.

It is not improbable that the
present provocation is timed to
prevent Russia from helping to
finish the war against Japan.
Given the present American
policy of supplying the Kuomin-
tang only, and the inevitability
of Russian operations bringing
the Red Army in contact with
Chinese Communist forces in
North China, Soviet-American
difficulties could not be avoided.
If, however, both America and
Russia treat China as a whole
and supply both the Kuomintang
and the Communists for opera-
tions against Japan only, no con-
flict need arise. Perhaps the Kuo-

mintang fears that’ such an
agreement will be reached at
Potsdam.

(Continued on page 8)

See CIVIL WAR
SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1945