VIRTUALLY HOPELESS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 226, 21 June 1944, Page 5

VIRTUALLY HOPELESS

Chinese Position At Changsha ,

CHUNGKING, June 19. The Japanese forces have advanced to Hengyang. Driving several miles below captured Chuehow, in Hunan Province, the Japanese have reached the Lu River's northern bank about 75 miles north-east of Hengyang. Fierce fighting continues in the Changsha suburbs, but the situation is virtually hopeless. The Chinese admit that the enemy captured Lungyu, in Chekiang Province.

BURMA OFFENSIVE Setback For Chinese

CHUNGKING, June 19.

A Chinese communique states that the Chinese have withdrawn from Lungling. It was because they were threatened with encirclement that the Chinese evacuated Lungling. This is the first major setback in the Burma offensive. It was offset somewhat by new Chinese gains in the mountains and valleys of Tengchung. General Sung Hsilien’s withdrawal from Lungling in the face of a threatened enemy pincer movement is regarded as a serious setback, says the “New York Times” correspondent at the headquarters of the Chinese expeditionary force in Burma. It is pointed out that to retake Lungling the Chinese now have to overcome a much larger concentration of enemy forces, who again have motor communication with Tengchung and may be able to reopen supply communications southward to Bhamo. Ever since the capture of Lungling on June 10 General Sung reported a shortage of food and ammunition, particularly artillery and mortar shells. The weather hampered aerial shipments.