CHINA REORGANISES NORTHERN FRONT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 235, 4 October 1937, Page 7

CHINA REORGANISES NORTHERN FRONT.

130,000 STRONG. Hold Japanese At All Costs Is Chiang's Order. FIERCE SHANGHAI CLASHES. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 2 p.m.) LONDON, October 3. A Japanese telegram from Peking states that 130,000 Chinese are massing in North China and reorganising under Marshal Chiang Kai-shek's orders to hold the Japanese at all costs. They are under the supervision of General Cheng Chien, Marshal Chiang's Chief of Staff at Nanking.

It is reported that Chinese were encircled by 1000 Japanese 50 miles south of Tientsin. Japanese further south captured Techow. The Chinese garrison of 00,000 retreated by boat down the grand canal, the swift Japanese advance having foiled defensive efforts. Japanese, advancing from Paotingfu, seized Chuyang. Chinese at Shanghai declare tliat they have taken measures to nullify Japanese peneration of the "iron belt" front as the whole remains firm. Terrific street fighting rages in where the Japanese are trying to reach the North Station. Eight hundred Japanese are said to be dead or dying in'the streets and alleyways. Others were trapped in burning buildings. Japanese maintain severe shelling on the Kaingwan sector. They bombed Chinese warships in Yungan estuary and claim to have damaged a gunboat and torpedo boat, and stranded a cruiser.

BOYCOTT URGED. Australian Labour Bodies' Activities. PRIME MINISTER'S WARNING. SYDNEY, October 3. The movement in favour of a boycott of Japanese goods is gaining ground in Australia, chiefly among Labour organisations and the Housewives' Association. The Australian Council of Trades Unions is taking the matter up with the idea of co-ordinating the activities of Labour bodies.

Speaking at Adelaide, a visiting member of the British House of Commons, Mr. Arthur Henderson, expressed the opinion that moves to enforce a trade boycott against Japan might, as a moral gesture, prove effective. Such steps, however, should be taken internationally through the League of Nations.

The Prime Minister, Mr. J. A. Lyons, speaking at Byron Bay yesterday, urged Australians to keep their heads and say and do nothing which would intensify trouble with Japan. He emphasised that the Government was watching the position very closely in common with the other Dominions, all of which were in constant touch with the British Government.

The Japanese Consul-General in Sydney, Mr. T. Wakamatsu, uttered a warning that a boycott would provoke retaliatory action by Japan against Australian wool and other products. More than 100 Communists paraded the city streets last night, demonstrating against the Japanese. The police arrested four of the ringleaders.

SINKING OF JUNKS. Japanese Claim Reports Were Exaggerated. QUALIFIED ADMISSION. TOKYO, October S. The Japanese naval spokesman asserts that the reports of the sinking of Chinese junks were exaggerated. However, he admits that there were four instances of Japanese warships which encountered junks "taking appropriate measures," when large junks of about 500 tons carrying armaments, including guns of various calibres, machine-guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition, attacked a Japanese visiting party.

The "Nichi Nichi Shimbun" accuses Britain of supplying China with huge quantities of munitions, tear-gas and dumdum bullets through Hongkong.

NATIONAL FUND. BELIEF OF CHINESE DISTRESS. British Official Wireless. RUGBY, October 3. A national fund is to be opened for the relief of distress in China. An appeal for money and material has been issued by the British Red Cross Society, the China Association and the conference of British Missionary Societies. Money and material sent to China will be administered under the direction of the British Ambassador and the Governor of Hongkong. The appeal, to which there are 38 signatories, headed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev. Arthur Hinsley, is based on the broad human ground, that the conflict is occasioning terrible suffering in all forms among unknown numbers of Chinese. It is estimated that the number of destitute Chinese for whom Shanghai will have to provide in the near future, is 500,000.

CARTRIDGE CARGOES. I UNLOADING AT SINGAPORE. SINGAPORE, October 3. The Norddeutscher Lloyd Company last month unloaded 350 tons of cartridges at Singapore, and its steamer Donau is expected to unload 400 tons when she arrives on Monday. Both cargoes are understood to. have been originally consigned to Hongkong.