ATTEMPT SMASHED

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 107, 9 May 1939, Page 9

ATTEMPT SMASHED

RECAPTURE HANKOW. Japs. Claim Many Successful Battles. "STATE OF WAR EXISTS." United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 12 noon.) LONDON, May 8. The "Daily Telegraph" Shanghai correspondent says the Japanese claim that their counter-offensive in Northern Hupeh smashed the Chinese attempt to recapture Hankow. The Japanese deployed on an 80-mile front between Sinyang and Hanlu and claim to have routed 2(1 Chinese divisions. The Japanese also claim to have cut off one-fifth of General Chiang Kaishek's 100,000 troops retreating north- I east of Hankow. An Independent Cable Service report from Shanghai says that, after causing casualties estimated at 8000 or 9000 at Chungking in three days of bombing raids, the Japanese announce that they will not relax the raids until the city is evacuated. ( Air raids forced the remainder of the inhabitants of Chungking underground. For the first time in the whole campaign, a Japanese spokesman in Shanghai used the term "belligerent rights" in justification of the attack on Chungking. He added that a state of war exists despite the absence of declaration. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr. R. A. Butler, in the House of Commons, said that the Government would not concur in any changes in the municipal control of Shanghai without consulting all parties.

FIVE KILLED. E.A.F. CRASHES IN BRITAIN. (Received 2 p.m.) LOXDOX, May 8. Two Royal Air Force civilian 'planes collided at Horne, Surrey, killing two pilots and a woman passenger. Two other Air Force 'planes collided at Stubton, when two flight cadets were killed. ARABS EXECUTED. DEMONSTRATION AT GAOL. (Received 11 a.m.) JERUSALEM, May 8. Two Arab brothers were executed for the murder of Constable Connolly on April 19. The police dispersed 200 Arab women demonstrating in the vicinity of the prison.