PORT OF FOOCHOW

Evening Star, Issue 25300, 7 October 1944, Page 7

PORT OF FOOCHOW

REPORTED IN JAP. HANDS

CHINESE APPEAL FOR ASIATIC SECOND FRONT

(Rec. 11 a.m.) CHUNGKING, October 6. Japanese forces, according to the Associated Press, have reached the north-western suburbs of Foochow. A lone Chinese unit isolated at Paoching has made contact with reinforcements which counter-attacked and entered the city from the north-east, reviving the hopes that Paoching might be saved. Its fall, besides removing a threat .to the Japanese right flank, would! give the enemy a jumping off point for a drive westward to sever highway communications to the south. Major fighting is raging in four provinces—Fukien, Hunan, Kwangsi, and Kwangtung. Chinese guerrillas recaptured Szewui, an important town, 47 miles north-east of Canton. The Chinese have admitted the fall of Changning, a coveted position on the Japanese left flank, 37 miles south of Hengyang. The newspaper ‘ Ta Rung Pao,’ in an editorial, appealed to Britain and America to open a second front on the Asiatic mainland. The paper pointed out that it would be as important strategically as Europe’s second front. It added: “If the Allies win a complete victory in the China war theatre the South Seas will be liberated and Japan will collapse.”