DRIVE ON CANTON

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 April 1939, Page 7

DRIVE ON CANTON

OFFENSIVE CONTINUES [BY CABLE—PRESS. ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, April 14. The Shanghai correspondent of “The Times” states that although the outcome of the Chinese Tgeneral offensive cannot yet be -assessed, the Chinese clearly maintain the initiative. They are apparently about to recapture Canton, on which they are driving, after taking Tseng-shing and Sheklung. The Japanese have, evacuated the aerodrome and are making desperate efforts to prevent encirclement.' They have plunged into-a major defensive battle rpund Fung-chung and Kiuy-fu, 15 miles nortlnwest of the city. The Chinese offensive in the provinces' of/ Shansi, Hupeh, Honan, and Kiangsi continue in full .flood, of .victory. The-casualties since the inception of the offensive are computed at 60,000 Chinese and 48,000 Japanese killed and wounded. • ,<£'

FURTHER SUCCESSES LONDON, April 16. “The Times’s” Chungking correspbh-. '■ dent says that the Chinese have occupied Tsengchen, Tungshu, and Fushan. REMOVAL OF INDUSTRIES LONDON, April 16. “The Times’s" Chungking correspondent says that the Chinese Government has astonishingly succeeded in removing vital industries to the interior. Three hundred and thirty cotton mills, electric plants, iron and steel works, aggregating...l3o,o6o; tpps of equipment, have been tajienj to iheW sites, chiefly in Szechwan. ; A cotton mill of 50,000 spindles, was transported 1000 miles by road, railway, and steamer, and junks through the Yangtse gorges, despite air attacks, and dumped on a barren hillside, where 4,000 coolies are levelling the site. Meantime 2,500 spindles are operating in temporary sheds.

CHINESE WAR BONDSCHUNGKING, April 15. The Chinese Government officially announces the forthcoming issue of 600,000,000 dollars worth of bonds to finance the second period of the war of resistance. Interest at six per cent, will be secured on taxation and revenue. The bonds will be redeemable in 1966. The first half will be issued on June 1, and the second on October 1. Bonds of a similar amount have been issued to finance the work of reconstruction.