SHARP FIGHTING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 13, 15 July 1937, Page 9

SHARP FIGHTING

CLOSE TO PEKING

NANKING UNYIELDING

LONDON, July 14,

Half an hour after midnight sharp fighting, in which artillery and trench mortars were employed, broke out nearer the walls of Peking than any

clash hitherto. The instructions by the Nanking Central Government to the Chinese commander are that he is not to yield up an inch of territory or sign any agreement. Reports that the Chinese have apologised and that a truce has been arranged are inaccurate. A message from Tientsin declares that the negotiations have ended in a deadlock.

Japan is angered by what she terms the premeditated Chinese attacks in violation of the first clay's armistice.

As a rejoinder suggestions come from Nanking and Paris that Britain, America, and France intend energetically to intervene in the dispute. The Japanese Foreign Office spokesman, Mr. Tatsuo Kawai, declared that Japan would not welcome such intervention. "The crisis is unabated and the future depends on China," he said. Meanwhile Lieut.-General Katsuki has arrived to take over the Japanese command in North China and protect Japanese rights. ANTI-JAPANESE CHORUS. The British United Press agency's correspondent at Shanghai reports that even the Communists have joined in the patriotic chorus, "The Japanese must be driven out of China." General Li Chung-yen, commander-in-chief in the Kwangsi Province, has telegraphed to the head of the Chinese Central Government at Nanking, pledging his army's support in the national resistance to Japan. Japanese troops have begun a twoday march to Peking from Tientsin j with full war equipment. The heat is sweltering. The Toldo representative of the British United Press agency reports that the Chinese Charge d'Ailaircs has requested the evacuation of the areas recently occupied by the Japanese and the cessation of further advances. He received a firm refusal, and was told that Japan held China responsible for the crisis. A message from New York states that the Chinese Minister of Finance, Dr. H. H. Kung, has issued a statement declaring that China desires amicable relations with Japan, but will no longer lie down if Japan continues to use force to occupy Chinese territory.