DANGER TO FOOCHOW

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 84, 6 October 1944, Page 5

DANGER TO FOOCHOW

ADMITTED BY CHUNGKING

. NEW YORK, October 4. A Chinese communique acknowledges that Japanese forces are within six miles of Foochow, the last large port held by the Chinese on the east China coast. The Japanese in Kwangsi Province have also captured Hmgan, 31 miles north-east of Kweilin, and fighting is reported 12 miles west of Hingan. The enemy has penetrated to Changning, 37 miles south of Hengyang. Fierce fighting is still raging inside Paoching.

The Chungking correspondent of the Associated Press comments that the new Japanese offensive in Fukien Province and the strong enemy drive in Kwangsi Province towards Kweilm.,, indicate a Japanese plan not only to seize American air bases, but also to prevent any American forces from heading for the China coast and ■to achieve a general strengthening of the Japanese defences against an' American move from the Pacific. TWO OPERATIONS. The New York newspaper "PM."" says that the new Japanese drive on Foochow is part of two strategically important operations in east China. The first is the important operation which is rapidly approaching a climax in Kwangsi Province, where two powerful Japanese armies are marching on Kweilin and -Liuchow. Success in this campaign would enable the enemy to dominate the principal north-south communications through China and would effectively split the western provinces from those along the coast. Before the enemy can consolidate eastern China against the Allied forces converging from India and the Pacific it will be necessary to mop up the Chinese forces trapped in the east. The second important campaign got under way last month in, Chekiang Province with the push south of Kinhwa. The invaders have accomplished part of their objective by capturing Wenchbw and seizing the United States airfield at Lishui.