JAPANESE DRIVE AT SHANGHAI

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22245, 9 November 1937, Page 11

JAPANESE DRIVE AT SHANGHAI

SURPRISE LANDING IN CHAPOO TROOPS REACH WHANGPOO RIVER LITTLE RESISTANCE OFFERED BY CHINESE tCNITRP PECC9S *MOCIATIOK--COPTI(IGIfT.) (Received November 8, 8.30 p.m.) SHANGHAI, November 7. After an engagement in which the Japanese lost 20 and the Chinese 1000 killed, and five field guns, the Japanese who landed at Hangchow Bay on Friday reached the Whangpoo river and are marching on Sunkiang. In spite of the threat to Pootung, the Chinese deny the reported evacuation of this place, declaring that the exit of the civilian population was carried out under military orders to make possible a more effective defence of tho position.

The Japanese have captured Huchiakiao, in the Soochow creek area, and hold a line along Lincoln avenue running two miles westward from the International Settlement, 500 yards from the south bank of the creek.

Heavy bombardment is being carried out by both sides on the main Shanghai front, the advantage being with the Japanese. Incendiarists destroyed the Tungwen College, the only Japanese University in China. Chinese prevented the settlement fire engines from approaching the scene. Japanese marines, by making a surprise landing at Five-Mile Beach, Chapoo, opened the way for several infantry divisions, with artillery. The manoeuvre was brilliantly planned and executed with the aid of 180 armed launches, which were shrouded in a heavy dawn mist under the protection of warships and aeroplanes. General Yanagawa, who was brought back recently from political retirement, commanded the opera-

The Chinese, in the absence of attacks earlier in the campaign, had withdrawn from their excellent trenches and fortifications to strengthen the Shanghai front. The landing parties found the trenches empty. They swept on through a rainladen gale to the Whangpoo river and formed a strong front between Minghong and Sunkiang, firing on a British travelling party on the way. They crossed the Whangpoo and advanced to within 12 miles of Shanghai, threatening the Chinese keypoint, Lunghwa. The Japanese troops in the Shanghai area now exceed 150,000. They threaten to cut off the Pootung garrison unless an evacuation is successfully completed. The only contact of the Chinese troops with Shanghai is to the west, where the Japanese menace them in the front and rear. The Japanese will possibly compel an early retreat, but there is no sign of collapse in the Chinese morale.

Dozens of Japanese aeroplanes are bombing and machine-gunning the Chinese lines westward of Shanghai as far as Sungkiang. The Japanese troons are moving from the south closer to Sungkiang, where the southern, end of the Chinese line is situated.

The movements are the beginning of the Japanese attempt to fulfil the prediction that they will isolate the Chinese from Shanghai before Tuesday evening.