“CITY OF SORROW”

Evening Star, Issue 23099, 27 October 1938, Page 11

“CITY OF SORROW”

THE FALL OF HANKOW FIRES DYING DOWN UNDER STEADY RAIN CHINA DETERMINED TO FIGHT ON Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright HANKOW, October 26. A tragic dawn broke over “ a city of sorrow.” Throughout the night fires were dying d /n under a steady drizzle of rain. Scores of tattered, heart-broken refugees are crouching miserably in doorways as Japanese troops pass by. There is no sign of fighting in city areas. British and French sailors are patrolling the streets with Japanese to prevent looting. Hundreds of foreigners are seeking safety in special administrative districts, in which there is complete calm. Scores of buildings are smouldering under a pall of black smoke, these including the Japanese Consulate and naval headquarters, which were blown up. The Japanese have promised to guarantee refugee zones. They entered Hankow’s sister city, Wuchang, on the south bank of the Yangtse, this morning. The occupation was completed after bloody street fighting.

Though talk of a truce and Japanese peace terms is widespread, the China Press emphasises that it is impossible to cease fighting, and China will not abandon resistance until her territorial integrity and sovereign rights have been restored. '

JAPAN'S FINAL AIM

THE BUILDING OF A NEW CHINA

TOKIO, October 26

“ We will not relax our efforts until we have succeeded in building a new China, laying the foundations of permanent Far East peace,” declared General Itagaki, who was interviewed after the news of the occupation of Hankow. He added; “ Only then shall we stop. If necessary we will penetrate the remotest parts of China. What the fall of Canton and Hankow means will bo best known to Marshal Chiang Kaishek himself. He is now little more than a local chieftain, but for us it is a mere milestone en route to the final and complete eradication of all the influences, embracing Communism, resisting Japan’s just rights and aims.” BRITISH AMBASSADOR'S TOUR MAY MEET KAI-SHEK, (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 26. (Received October 27, at 11 a.m.) The British Ambassador, Sir Archibald Kerr, who is on a tour of China, was due to arrive at Yunnanfu this evening, where he will meet Mr Greenway, who has been in charge of the Embassy office at Hankow. The possibility of a meeting between Sir Archibald Kerr and Marshal Kaishek during the former’s tour is not excluded. KAI-SHEK NOT RESIGNING NO DESIRE FOR PEACE WITH JAPAN. HANKOW, October 26. (Received October 27, at 11.6 a.m.) An official message from Chungking where Marshal Kai-shek is now staying, states that he is not resigning, and is not desirous of peace with Japan, irrespective of the British Ambassador’s rumoured representations concerning the matter. Japanese warships and six destroyers steamed up the Yangtse past the boom, anchoring in the Japanese concession. Soldiers disembarked and fraternised with Italian and German sailors.

IMPORTANCE OF HANKOW

A correspondent writes in the ‘ Economist ’ of September 17:—• Hankow is of vital importance because of its position as the hub of the Chinese wheel, as the essential junction of the mam lines of communication by which the parts of China still free from Japanese invasion are held together

under a central authority. Hankow is situated in the very centre of China, at the intersection of the great Yangtze waterway (navigable from Chungking to the sea) with the Peiping-Canton railway traversing China from north to south. The section of the Peiping-Can-ton railway north of the Yellow River has been lost, but the line is still held by the Chinese as far as Chengchow, whence there is contact by the Lunghni railway westward to Siam, the provincial capital of Shensi, from Hankow the Chinese Government thus has railway communication south to Canton, the main source of supplies from abroad, and north to Honan and Shensi provinces, while to the west it has access by river shipping to the mountaiu-

girt province of Szechwan beyond the gorges above Ichang. If Hankow were to Tall to the Japanese, this system of communication, on which the unity and effectiveness of China as an organised State so largely depend, would be broken up. The northern provinces of Honan, Shensi, and Kansu would be cut off altogether from railway communication with Canton, and the Chinese forces operating in North China would no longer be able to obtain military ■ supplies from the south. They would become entirely dependent for supplies on the Urumchi-Hami-Lanchow road from the Soviet Union; this route, which is merely a dirt track, cannot compare with the railway as a means of munitioning, and, in so*far as it sustained the North China armies, it would involve a political orientation towards the Soviet Union rather than a consolidation of Chinese unity under Kuomintang leadership. A similar loosening of cohesion would result between Canton and Szechwan. Apart from the main connection by the Canton-Hankow railway and the Yangtze, Szechwan is in contact with the coast only by inferior roads through the mountains* of Kweichow and Western Hunan ; the Japanese capture of Hankow, especially if it were followed up by an advance to Yochow and the Tungting lake, where the railway first approaches the Yangtze, would mean the virtual isolation of Szechwan and a dangerous separation of Chiang Kai-shek’s main army from the Central Government. For, whereas Chungking in Szechwan is the reserve capital, and most of the Government offices have already been moved there, Chiang’s army cannot leave the railway by which it is munitioned; it must withdraw, not westward into Szechwan, but southward into Hunan. Szechwan may be regarded as inaccessible to Japanese forces because of the deep gorges of the Yangtze above Ichang, which _ form a gateway of enormous defensive strength. But the province would be verv susceptible to blockade, because prnetieallv nil its trade goes down the Yangtze, and with Hankow and Yochow in their hards the Japanese would be able to bring strong pressure on Szechwan to break awav'and , conclude a separate peace. If they were to be successful in t|ius dealing with Szechwan, the Japanese would have cut China in two along the line of the Yangtze, and thev would have won the war as far as they can hope to win it.

The Post and Telegraph Department has received advice from Hongkong to the effect, that communication with Hankow is at present interrupted, and that messages are subject to delay and uncertain delivery. Consequently telegrams will Vie accepted only at the risk of the sender.