SEVERE SHORTAGE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 90, 26 January 1943, Page 3

SEVERE SHORTAGE

JAPANESE LACK OF SHIPPING.

RIVER BOATS ON OCEAN DUTY.

FEVERISH REPAIR WORK

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright). (Rec. 10.25.) CHUNGKING, Jan. 25. The Japanese are suffering ,a shipping shortage and are forced to transfer river boats to ocean duty, accords ing to a former newspaper representativc who escaped from Shanghai. The i .■ dockyards at Shanghai .are _ working the round of the clock, repairing vessels which have been bombed and torpedoed by American planes and submarines. The growing American aerial oftensivelias impelled the Japanese to adopt stringent air-raid precautions in all the large cities they have occupied.

AMERICANS ACTIVE IN PACIFIC.

(Rec. 12.30 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 25. The United Press correspondent at the American base in the Solomons says that American torpedo-boats have sunk or damaged an estimated total of 250,000 tons of enemy shipping, including a battleship, two cruisers, and 13 destroyers, since they began operations in the Solomons in October. Previously the Japanese used to send ships laden with reinforcements to Guadalcanal- with monotonous regularity. Now traffic by this route has practically stopped. The boats instilled such fear in the minds of the Japanese that they no longer pause to unload supplies but throw their cargo overboard in floating crates, most of which are destroyed by torpedo-boats and planes before they reach the shore.