WON BY CHINESE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 147, 18 December 1943, Page 7

WON BY CHINESE

BATTLE IN RICE BOWL

JAPANESE PLAN DEFEATED (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Ree. 11 a.m. CHUNGKING, Dec. 17. The Japanese are retiring: under Chinese pressure at the rate of about ten miles daily south of the Lin River, and will soon have been entirely cleared from the southern half of the rice bowl, said an army spokesman, Major-General Tseng, Only two pockets of Japanese resistance remain in the rice bowl area, one north-east of Linli and the other north-west of the town. General Hsueh Yueh, the war commander in northern Hunan, told the Press that while the battle of Chang-, teh cost the Chinese 14,000 casualties against the Japanese 11,000^ it was a pivotal success for the whole United Nations' strategy in the Pacific region. Emphasising the strategic importance of Changteh, although it has been turned into ruins in one of the bloodiest battles of the whole SinoJapanese war, General Hsueh explained that Changteh is the military gateway west of Tungting Lake and northwest of Changsha. It was the most inviting route for the Japanese towards Changsha, which has been successfully defended thrice previously. Changsha is one of the principal stations on the Hankow-Can-ton railway, the middle section of which is now the backbone of China's transportation ssytem. VALUABLE LINE. The Japanese hold lengths of this line at the northern and southern ends. If the Japanese could break through at Changteh and get the entire railway line in their hands they could nullify any Allied threat to the Japanese sea communications by moving troops and supplies overland the whole distance from northern China to Hong Kong. General Hsueh said the full exploitation of such ' a break-through would mean the dissection of Free China, the loss of the main railway system, and the vast impairment of China as a future base for an attack against Japan. The urgency of the Japanese strategy is indicated by their using poison gas. General Hsueh said the Japanese had raped and wantonly killed women and children, and engaged in plundering and incendiarism everywhere. He con-

eluded that Japanese strategy was not equal to that.of 1041. The Japanese soldier's morale was lower than at any time in the past six years.