CHINA’S DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 143, 20 June 1938, Page 7

CHINA’S DEFENCE.

GRIM LAST RESORT. Floods Cause Drastic Change Of Campaign Plans. COLUMNS BOGGED. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 19. The “Daily Telegraph” Shanghai correspondent says the floods will have a major effect on the war. The Japanese high command has been forced drastically to change its plan of campaign because the northern communications have been cut.

Mechanical columns are bogged and at a standstill, confining the offensive against Hankow to the Yangtse Valley, which itself is in danger of inundation. Marshal Chiang Kai-shek can much more easily conduct his defence against this single line of attack.

One-third of Kiukiang area is already submerged. Roads and railways, which aie essential to the original Japanese plan of envelopment, are inundated over scores of miles. The Chinese are takiim advantage of the situation and are successfully counter-attacking.

The flood waters have compelled the Japanese to withdraw from the PekingHankow railway, while the highways to Tencheny, another objective, are also threatened and Lunghai district is impassable.

The maximum floods are expected in July and August.

DARING ATTACK. Chinese ’Planes Said to Have Sunk Jap. Gunboats. TOKYO ALLEGES POISON GAS. (Received 10.30 n.m.) LONDON, June 19. Chinese aeroplanes, says a Hankow’ report, daringly attacked a concentration of 50 Japanese warships, probably’ mostly gunboats, and claim to have sunk four and damaged one near Anking. Twelve Japanese pursuit ’planes engaged the raiders, whose superior speed enabled them to escape scathless. The Japanese accuse the Chinese of using poison gas, says a Tokyo message. Japanese forces approaching'Hankow along the Yangtse have reached the edge of the Tapiehshan mountain range, the city’s natural defence barrier. The Domei news agency interprets the Japanese bombing of Hainan Island, near French Indo-China, as a warning to France against giving further assistance to the Chinese.

It is admitted that 200,000 Chinese have invaded Shansi Province, which the Japanese claim to dominate. GUNMEN’S RAID. Murder in Crowded Restaurant In Shanghai. COMMISSIONER KILLED. (Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, June 19. Three gunmen strolled through a crowded restaurant on Foochow Road last night and fired into the private dining-room where provisional Government officers were holding a party, says “The Times” correspondent. They killed Commissioner Jen Paoan and a singsong girl and dangerously wounded another official and seriously injured four others. Six of eight Japanese among the 20 guests had left before the attack. The assailants escaped during a panic. Three other gunmen entered the house of the educational officer, Kan Chi-fong and wounded his colleague. BOYCOTT URGED. Anti-Japanese Movement in Britain. LONDON DEMONSTRATION. (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, June 19. As a culmination of a w’eek of meetings of the China Campaign Committee, 2000 marched from Trafalgar Square to the Japanese Embassy, • which was surrounded by a police cordon. The police allowed the deputation to hand to a man-servant a resolution protesting against the bombardment of Canton and urging an embargo on petrol to Japan and boycott of Japanese goods.

DRUG TRAFFIC. Japanese Accused at Geneva Meeting. GRAVITY OF SITUATION. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. A radio message from the League of Nations, Gehevq, issued by the Prime Minister’s Department states that the advisory commission on traffic in opium and other dangerous drugs examined reports by Governments on the drug situation in the Far East, which aroused long discussion. Chinese representatives accused Japan of encouraging illicit traffic and clandestine manufacture of drugs in Chinese territory under Japanese occupation. The Japanese representatives denied the facts, but several speakers, especially the United States representative, insisted on their gravity. The commission will draw up a resolution. SHOTS EXCHANGED. RUSSO-JAPANESE CLASH. TOKYO, June 19. An armed clash between Russian and Japanese forces occurred on the Mauchukuo frontier, and shots were exchanged, according to a report by’ thej Domei news agency.