JAPANESE CAPTURE NANKOW PASS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22182, 27 August 1937, Page 11

JAPANESE CAPTURE NANKOW PASS

Eleven Days' Fighting in Difficult Country

TROOPS SUPPLIED FROM THE AIR

General Advance on Whole Length of

Shanghai Front

(L-.N'ITBD i-UXSS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received August 27, 12.5 a.m.) LONDON, August 26. The Tokyo correspondent of "The Times" says the capture of Nankow Pass is confirmed. It was taken after 11 days' fighticin country so difficult that some of the Japanese units were fed and supplied with munitions from the air. A typical operation was the capture of the village of Chun Yung-kwan, where the last position was a watch-tower on the Great Wall. Here, when their hand grenades were finished, the Chinese rolled great stones upon the Japanese, killing and wounding many. The Japanese, after the capture of Kalgan, are now advancing down the Peiping-Suiyuan railway. Another report from Tokyo says it is claimed that the Japanese have advanced on the whole length of the Shanghai front, and also along the Peiping-Hankow railway. A message from Shanghai states that the Chinese, fighting with extraordinary determination, brought the Japanese drive towards Shanghai to a standstill, forcing the attackers fiercely to contest every inch of ground. The possibility of an invasion of the International Settlement by either army is now considered to be more remote. All places of amusement are closed, and the curfew is enforced between 10 p.m. and dawn, but the arrival of British and other troops is having a calming effect.

FIERCE FIGHTING AT SHANGHAI

BUSINESS FIRMS REOPEN

GENERAL OFFENSIVE BY

EFFECTS OF BLOCKADE

JAPANESE

FEARED

MENACE TO INTERNATIONAL

JAPANESE PRESSURE SAID TO BE TOO STRONG

SETTLEMENT

i (TOUTK) PKCaS ASSOCIATIOH—COPTBIOHT.) LONDON, August 25. In brilliant sunshine and under a cloudless sky, the 'Japanese to-day launched a general offensive on all roads leading to Shanghai from Woosung. The' Chinese have concentrated large forces in the trenches and are holding the lines in spite of intense air bombing and shelling from the, warships which covered the landing of heavy artillery. Huge fires have started in Pootung and Hong-kew. A Japanese Army spokesman stated that unless the Chinese ceased firing from Pootung, Japan would be compelled to dislodge them. If they retired to Nantao, the Japanese must regard it as a military area, and they would shell it, in spite of the large civil population. The danger of the retreating Chinese making an attempt to storm the barricades of the International Settlement is becoming graver. Air Raids Continue Artillery is arriving from Hong Kong, and all measures are being j/prepared to resist an attack or evacuate the Settlement as a last resort. An inventory has been taken of property, business and pergonal, in the event of the necessity of claiming damages. Meanwhile the Japanese aeroplanes continue systematically to bomb the Chinese positions. Many villages are on fire and the Mandarin Gardens at Nantao are ablaze. The Chinese claim to have sunk two Japanese destroyers, but confirmation from neutral sources is unavailable. Japanese troops have landed at Chapoo, 30 miles south of Shanghai, with the object of attacking Hashing, the most important military centre in the Chekiang Province. British military experts estimate that the Chinese have lost from 7000 to 11,000 killed and wounded in the fighting at Shanghai, excluding thousands of civilian casualties in air raids and naval bombardments. Chinese Driven Back The Japanese claim to have entered Kalgan. Millions of dollars have been sont to Hong Kong from all parts of China for safe keeping. In the meantime, the marines are steadily driving back the Chinese and especially are they threatening the Chinese rear in the Chapei area. ' Japanese troops, under cover of a bombardment by 10 warships and /$0 aeroplanes, landed to-day near > oshan, north of Shanghai. The Japanese warships in the lower reaches of the Whang-poo *jver are at present bombarding Chapei, Kiang-wan, and Tazang to cover the advance from Woosung, Much began earlier in the day. Japanese aeroplanes heavily opmbed outlying villages, while a .dozen new fires started in Shanghai itself, one near the recentlyevacuated Central Hospital, and another behind the British-owned skygraper, the Broadwav Mansions otel. The Japanese also bombed and set *>J fire the Kiang-wan arsenal, south of Shanghai. It is recalled that the *ttt arsenal there was blown up by ,£ainiral Seymour in 1900, during *h* Boxer rising. Vice-Admiral Hasegawa has proclaimed a blockade against Chinese "hipping from Shanghai to a point Bear Hong Kong. . The blockade applies to both Gov£*nment and private shipping, but K *oreiga shipping is exempt.

(xmmo pebss association—copyiught.) (Received August 27, 12.30 a.m.) SHANGHAI, August 26. Most business firms in Shanghai have reopened. Independent observers express the opinion that the Japanese pressure, especially from the warships, is too strong. The most disturbing feature, from the international standpoint, is the Japanese blockade, which the Admiralty describes in the Japanese stock phrase as "a measure of selfdefence." ""

The Admiralty states that foreign ships are liable to be boarded to ascertain their true nationality. It is feared the blockade will seriously injure British and other traders.

POWERS' INTEREST IN

DISPUTE

CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS

IN LONDON

CLOSE COLLABORATION WITH

UNITED STATES

IBBITISB OFFICIAL WIBBLBS8.)

RUGBY, August 25,

The Prime Minister (Mr Chamberlain) returned to-day to London from the Deeside, Northern Scotland, where he has been on a fishing holiday.

He was visited at No. 10 Downing Street by the Foreign Secretary (Mr Eden) and the Lord Privy Seal (Lord Halifax), and the three Ministers conferred on the situation in Shanghai and the incidents which had occurred in the Mediterranean in recent weeks. Mr Chamberlain returned to Scotland by a night train. Mr Eden is remaining in London to attend the funeral of his father-in-law, Sir Gervase Beckett, who died yesterday. The Ministers, in reviewing the Far Eastern situation, are believed more particularly to have reaffirmed the policy of protecting, by all practicable measures, British lives and property in Shanghai, which would indicate that Britain does not contemplate a policy of evacuation. It may be taken for granted that the British Government fully shares the anxieties of the United States Government as to the danger to Far Eastern relations generally, and that it welcomes Mr Cordell Hull's appeal to both sides to cease hostilities. It was a cause of satisfaction that close collaboration h-'s been maintained with the other governments, especially the United States and Trance. Ministers regard it as most important that such collaboration should continue. The danger to a large number of foreign nationals and property in Tsing-tao, which would result from the spread of hostilities to that area, is a matter on which the Government has been in touch with the United States. Trie British diplomatic representatives in Nanking and Tokyo have been instructed to express to the Chinese and Japanese authorities the anxiety of the Government lest Tsing-tao should become involved in the hostilities, and support representations similar to those which the United States representatives are understood to be making.