20 TONS OF BOMBS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 88, 24 January 1942, Page 6

20 TONS OF BOMBS.

CHINESE RAID ON AIR BASE. % HEAVY DAMAGE REPORTED. LONDON, Jan. 23. A message from Chungking states that Chinese bombers dropped 20 tons of explosives on a Japanese air base in Indo-China, causing heavy damage. All the aircraft returned safely. Chinese bombers also raided a Japanese island base near Wei hei-wei. Three hundred Japanese officers and men were killed.. The Chungking correspondent of tho United Press reports that Dr. Wang Chung-Hui (Secretory-General of the Chinese Supreme National Defence • Council), in an interview to-day, said that any division of the war against the aggressors into two conflicts, Europe and Asia, would he “detrimental to our common cause. For China’s part we could not honourably sign any peace with Japan, nor shall we, for there can be no honourable peace with Japan apart from a general world settlement. China’s policy is one of complete co-operation —• of fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Allies against the Axis Powers.” It is officially reported from Chungking that virtually the entire population of Hong Kong, numbering 1,000,000, has been compelled to leave for the mainland. The Chungking Government has allocated a large sum , for the relief of these evacuees.

JAPANESE CAUGHT ON GROUND. NO PLANE ABLE TO TAKE OIJF. (Rec. 11.25.) CHUNGKING, Jan. 23. It is officially stated that the Hanoi aerodrome was the chief target of the Chinese bombing mentioned in the communique yesterday. Fifty-seven planes, of which 27 were Chinese bombers, 15 American and flown by Americans, and 15 Chinese fighters, attacked the big Japanese air base and barracks at Hanoi. The Japanese were caught flat-footed and not a single Japanese plane was able to take off.