JAPANESE FOILED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20824, 1 July 1942, Page 5

JAPANESE FOILED

BID FOR TUNGSTEN BEDS ENEMY’S SHANSI DRIVE (2.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 29. According to a report from Chungking, the Chinese Government officially stated that the'Japanese forces failed to reach the ,Tungsten fields-in Kiangsi, one of the major "objectives iri the current campaign in. east China. - .r. The Government announced that while the Japanese had accomplished much to prevent the use of phases from which the Chinese hoped tQ bomb Jaoan, the Tungsten deposits are still far from the advanced eriemy spearheads. These deposits, th'e spokesman asserted, are hardly less important than the airfields ir. the Chekiang and Kiangsi provinces together. The Tokio radio claimed that strong Japanese forces, in a threepoint offensive, threw the Chinese back on a 40-mile front between south-eastern Shansi and northern Honan. The Domei News Agency asserted that the front extends from Linhsien in the south-west to Lingchwan. Twelve _ Japanese divisions are engaged ' m "the "drive. The purpose of the major operations in this region is clear, but the scope of the Japanese drive suggests that formidable Chinese concentrations in south-westward Shansi have menaced the Japanese positions along the middle of the PeipingHankow railway Which is vital to the invaders for ariy big push to Chungking. The Japanese have tried vainly for four years to drive the Chinese from the southern Shansi mountains, • •