FAR EAST

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 October 1942, Page 5

FAR EAST

FAMINE IN CHINA

NEW YORK, October 19. The Associated Press Chungking correspondent says that stricken by one of the worst famines in modern times, thousands of Chinese are dying in Honan Province, where six million are officially reported to be on the verge of starvation. _ Official reports to Chungking said dial, eighteen millions of famine refugees clogged the roads from Honan towards Shensi Hopeh. The situation is intensified by the necessity- of supporting a large military force holding the present front against the Japanese-. RECAPTURE OF BURMA NEW YORK. October 19. The United Press of America's Chungking correspondent says: General Lo Choying, Commander ol the Chinese Expeditionary Force m India, General Stillwell, General Auchinleck, and General WaveU arc engaged in conferences. It is believsct that these are connected with Allied plans for the recapture of Burma. The Japanese are reported to have transferred to Burma an undetermined number of their troops from Malaya.

JA PA NESE PROPA GANDA

(Recd. Noon.) NEW YORK. October 20

How the Japanese used sex as a weapon during the Bataan campaign, was described by Colonel Carlos Romulo, of the Philippine Army, interviewed by P.M., Romulo, who was aide-de-camp to General MacArthur, and the last man to leave Bataan, is here on a lecture tour. He said: “One of many tricks the Japanese used in attempting to break the morale of the Bataan defenders was dropping handsomely lithographed pictures of nude women, over the front lines. Our soldiers had been lying in fox-holes for months, living daily on a handful of rice, and suffering terrible hardships of jungle war, and the pictures would be captioned: ‘Why go on suffering? Why not enjoy the pleasures of life? Come to us.' You are our brothers’. Their leaflets always emphasised colour line, and always pleaded to the Philippine soldiers lo join their oriental brothers in fighting the white race. Additionally, big loudspeakers, turned towards the American troops, broadcast English programmes from the Japanese-controlled Manila station, subtly designed to breed discontent. , , The Tokio radio stated the Japanese are ready to publish a newspaper in occupied territories. “Asahi _ is taking over the entire _ Press of Java, “Yomiuri” and “Hochi”, Burma, “Nichi Nichi” in the Philippines, m several languages, and the Domei Agency in Singapore, Malaya, Sumatra and Borneo. PREHISTORIC SKULL. CHUNGKING, October 19. The United Press reports that the Japanese sent to Tokio the famous “Pekin man” skull, believed to be 400,000 years old. The skull has disappegrod from its case in the Union Medical College, Pekin.