FIGHTING IN CHINA

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 May 1942, Page 5

FIGHTING IN CHINA

JAPS’ COSTLY PROGRESS DRIVE ON COASTAL PROVINCE LONDON, May 23. The Chinese High Command announced to-night that Chinese troops had withdrawn to designated positions from Chuan-shih Island, at the mouth of the Min river, in the province of Fukien, after exacting heavy casualties on the Japanese force. The Japanese smashed on to the island under cover of aircraft and intense artillery fire. The Japanese landed on Wednesday. The Chinese, greatly outnumbered fell back after fierce fighting. ‘ “The Japanese occupation of Chuanshih Island, near Foochow, after the Chinese had once chased them back to their ships and wiped out half the landing force, has obviously increased the Japanese threat to all China’s eastern seaboard,” says the Chungking correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain. Meanwhile a bloody struggle continues on a 45-mile front in the Chekiang Province. One Japanese column is advancing from Tunglu, apparently aiming at Lanchi. Northeast of Kinhwa at Pukiang Yiwu, and Tungyang, a triangle of towns which form the outer defence line of Kinhwa, the Japanese were definitely slowed down, the Chinese hurling back assault after assault. Two thousand Japanese were killed in a sanguinary encounter north of Yiwu, 32 miles north-east of .Kinhwa, but the Japanese are rushing up reinforcements.” A communique issued on Friday dealt with operations on the Chinese coast opposite the island of Formosa, and inland in Chekiang. Japanese attempts to land on the north bank of the Min river, below Foochow, were repulsed, and Chinese batteries exchanged fire with Japanese warships. Other Japanese troops which landed on an island were stated to have been driven back to their ships with heavy losses. Inland, Japanese columns attempting to outflank Hangchow, the capital of the Chekiang Province, continued to advance. Japanese columns converging on the neighbouring road and rail junction of Kiwu were fighting 7 to 15 miles from the town. Further inland in South Honan, the Chinese claimed to have recaptured a town and to have driven the Japanese westward. FOOCHOW RAIDED "LONDON, May 24. Foochow was heavily raided by Japanese aircraft yesterday. Ty.entyone Japanese warships bombarded islands off the Fukien coast.

CHEKIANG'S CAPITAL BOMBED

(Rec 11.15) CHUNGKING, May 24. One hundred thousand Japanese battered from three directions at the Chinese defences on the outskirts of Kinhwa, the provisional capital of Chekiang Province, in the heaviest fighting in East Asia in five years. An army communique said: Japanese bombers blasted Kinhwa ceaselessly for 24 hours. The Chinese are fighting stubbornly, but lack mechanical equipment and heavy artillery. Meanwhile, eight Japanese bomoers and six fighters, based on Burma, raided the heart of the important Burma Road city of Paoshan. whicn is the next objective of the Japanese forces fighting on the Burma Road, in Yunnan Province.

RETURN TO KIMONO

NEW YORK, May 23

Six Japanese members of Parliament have sponsored a nation-wide movement “spiritually to overcome Anglo-Saxon thought and rnstoms and to abandon trousers and jackets and return to the kimono.