ENTRY OF JAPANESE FORCES INTO CHITON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 250, 22 October 1938, Page 9

ENTRY OF JAPANESE FORCES INTO CHITON.

CHINESE EVACUATE. Buildings Blown Up; Fires Raging. THOUSANDS OF REFUGEES. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, October 21. Reuter's Hongkong correspondent reports that the Japanese vanguard is said to have entered Canton this afternoon. All Chinese high officials departed. Factories and public utility plants were blown up. A Hongkong message says that the electric power plant was * among the buildings Mown up in Canton. A fierce fire is sweeping the riverbank opposite Shameen.

Thousands of Chinese are in flight, many in sampans, downstream. It is now confirmed that the Chinese troops abandoned the city at midnight. Marshal Chiang Kai-shek has gone to Changsha.

The Japanese vanguard, consisting of 3000 mechanised troops, accompanied by tanks, completed the occupation of the eastern section of the city bv 4.40 p.m., having outstripped the main body of 30,000 infantry, who arrived later by railway from Tsengtsing after defeating the Chinese in this locality.

Map showing Canton and Hankow, I objectives of Japanese advance. The invaders have not yet attempted to occupy the western and central districts, whence evacuation continues. The capital has taken on the appearance of a beseiged city in which 1100 foreigners, including Britons, are determined to remain. The complete fall of Canton will isolate Hongkong from the remainder of China. The retreating Chinese dynamited Pearl River bridge, valued at £425,000. A Tokyo message says it is claimed that air reconnaissance showed that the Chinese defending Hankow are retreating on all fronts. Foreign military quarters are amazed at the rapidity of the Japanese entry into Canton and are surprised that the Chinese did not resist on the natural hill defences. They surmised that the real explanation was that all the picked troops were concentrated at Hankow.