CHINESE EXPECT HEAVY JAP. BLOWS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 107, 7 May 1943, Page 3

CHINESE EXPECT HEAVY JAP. BLOWS

BIG PREPARATIONS China Most Likely Field Of Operations N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright Rec. 11.30 CHUNGKING, May 6. There are strong indications that Japan is preparing to make an important move, declares a Chinese Army spokesman. Such possibilities as an attack against India and a thrust against Australia or Siberia cannot be ruled out, but it is believed that China is the most likely field of activity. The enemy would probably strive to destroy China's resistance by mopping up operations in one area after another. The spokesman pointed out that recent conferences of high-ranking generals in Tokyo and General Tojo's visit to Manila almost certainly foreshadowed a new stroke. Tojo in a speech at Manila said the Japanese were ready to strike the coup de grace at the enemy. He added: "The British and Americans will be so crushed that they will be no longer able to intervene in East Asia affairs." Puppet Troops Impressed The United Press correspondent at Chungking says that according to reports from Nanking additional Chinese puppet troops have been sent to the South Seas war zone to join Japanese garrisons or for frontline service following the Nanking Government's declaration of war against Britain and America. It is the traditional Japanese policy to shift puppet troops from home sectors to distant regions. The Japanese, however, are not sure of these troops. They hold their relatives as virtual hostages, and arrest and execute them in cases of desertion. A recent traveller from Shanghai said that puppet troops would join Chiang Kai-shek at the first opportunity. The Japanese, realising this, give the puppet soldiers only one rifle and a little ammunition to every five men and use them mostly for labouring work on South-west Pacific Islands. Chinese troops who are fighting desperately defending their strongholds in the Taihan Mountains killed almost 2000 Japanese in a fierce battle in the south-east of Shansi Province, says a United Press correspondent. The Chinese, however, were forced to yield a strategic centre to the invaders. They abandoned the rural town of Tunyaotsi after the destruction of all the buildings by enemy air and artillery bombardment.