BIG BATTLE IN CHINA

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 February 1942, Page 8

BIG BATTLE IN CHINA

JAPANESE OFFENSIVE

CHUNGKING, February 14. Ten thousand Japanese troops in a three-day offensive to dislodge the Chinese from southern Shantung have encountered fierce Chinese resistance. Both sides have suffered heavy casualties in this battle, the biggest in China. The Japanese are attacking the Chinese base in the Tayi mountains. They desire to remove the threat to the Thinan-Tsingtao railway which the Chinese have repeatedly dynamited. The Chinese recaptured Kwoyang in northern Anhwei within 24 hours of its occupation by the Japanese who, having lost 500 killed and wounded, are now in full retreat. The Kunming correspondent of the

Associated Press states that hundreds of thousands of coolies, women, and children are working with their bare hands building a new highway into China in order to maintain the influx of supplies if the Burma Road is cut. Completion of the new road is expected very soon, while the Government is also busy building and improving other vital roads. The width of the Kunming-Chungking road was recently doubled, thus permitting the traffic of huge army trucks and artillery. According to a message from Washington, Mr Roosevelt has received an assurance that Mr Owen Lattimore, political adviser to General Chiang Kai-shek, that the Chinese will continue fighting. Mr Lattimore told the Press: “China is one of the strongest sectors of the United Nations’ front. China is nearer victory against Japan after five years of fighting than ever before. Even if the Burma Road' is cut China will be able to continue her resistance.”