CHINESE DEFEAT JAPS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 June 1943, Page 5

CHINESE DEFEAT JAPS.

FURTHER OFFENSIVE PLANNED

NAVY CHIEF ASSASSINATED (Recd. noon) CHUNGKING, June 16. The Chinese are giving the Japanese little chance to reorganise from the crushing defeat in the Yangtse area, and have disrupted enemy communications with Yochow, in.the at-, tacks on the Hankow-Canton railway. The Chinese are .now massing forces to drive the Japanese from Hwajung and Shihshow. - A ' Chinese military spokesman stated there are indications of a new Japanese offensive in Western Yunnan froin Burma. He asserted that the Japanese were apparently preparing to use poison gas, as a Japanese ship unloaded 120 cases of gascontainers ana 50 tons of gas shells at Woesung, near Shanghai, in the middle of last month. Japanese planes dropped gas bombs on a Suiyuan village on May 31, and on the following day Japanese gas shells at a Shansi village. Reviewing the Upper Yangtse battle, the spokesman estimated that the Japanese employed 100,000 men. The Chinese forces were only slightly greater. ■' The spokesman said that the evidence indicated Admiral Yamamoto was not killed in action as announced, but assassinated at Manila by Japanese, as the result of a terrible feud between the Japanese Army and Navy. He added that Premier Tojo recently visited Manila to settle the feud.

ANOTHER CHINESE GAIN.

RUGBY, June 16. It is reported that the Chinese have retaken another town, about 70 miles down the stream from Ichang.

JAPANESE LOOT.

RUGBY, June 16. Addressing the Canadian Houses of Parliament, Madame Kai Shek said the materials that Japan had commandeered in the past 12 months reached staggering figures. “From occupied territories, within the Great Wall of China on an average, every month, three million two hundred thousand tons of raw materials are shipped to Japan, while two million eight hundred thousand tons are shipped from the occupied territories of Manchuria to Japan.”

BOMB AT THEATRE.

CHUNGKING, June 15. A great number of Japanese military personnel and civilians were killed by a time-bomb explosion-at a Japanese theatre in the Chapel district at Shanghai.

BOMBINGS IN BURMA

LONDON, June 15. Royal Air Force bombers and fighters yesterday attacked Akyab, the main Japanese base for the Arakan front in Burma. Bombs fell on the jetty and the wireless -station. Enemy troop positions on the Arakan front were machine-gunned, and positions in the Chin Hills were bombed. One British aircraft is missing. A communique issued in New Delhi says: “American bombers yesterday attacked a railway bridge in the vicinity of Katha, on the Irrawaddy, in Upper Burma. Hits were scored on buildings in Mandalay, and the area was also strafed. All the aeroplanes returned.” A Delhi communique says that American bombers yesterday attacked the railway bridge over the Mu River, North Burma. Hits were scored and railroad installations were also bombed. Other targets included railway workshops, buildings, and trucks at Maymyo. All the aircraft returned.

. RUGBY, June 16. The Delhi communique states the R.A.F. successfully bombed Japanese troops and depots on the Arakan front and also attacked railway com■munications.