JAPANESE TROOPS IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23493, 22 November 1941, Page 3

JAPANESE TROOPS IN CHINA

REPORTS OF GROWING DISAFFECTION (Received November 21, 10 p.m.) CHUNGKING, November 20. The Chinese Army spokesman asserted that intelligence reports disclosed growing disaffection among the Japanese troops in China. He predicted that a general uprising was certain if the war continued. The first known Japanese anti-war organisation has been formed at Suhsien, in the Anhwei Province. The leader of the organisation, Mr Nishi Bashi, has been arrested. The spokesman said that the recent revision of the conscription regulations resulted in the conscription of 400,000 Japanese and 260,000 Koreans into the army. The latest reports indicated that at least 100,000 Japanese troops were in southern Indo-China, many of them along the Thailand border. The spokesman also accused the Japanese of germ warfare. He said that on November 4 Japanese aircraft dropped foodstuffs and clothing at Changteh in the Northern Hunan Province. Many people who ate the food and used the clothes dropped later developed symptoms of bubonic plague and died. The Chinese Government is fully investigating the question, The Government of Indo-China has officially denied reports from Shanghai that Japan has demanded facilities for 50,000 more troops in Indo-China, Such a demand would exceed the Franco-Japanese agreement. Hence it would have to be taken up between Vichy and Tokyo.