JAPANESE DRIVE SOUTH

Grey River Argus, 23 June 1944, Page 5

JAPANESE DRIVE SOUTH

AN 80-MILE ARC Attempt to Halve China (Rec. 8.40.) CHUNGKING, June 21. The Japanese, attempting to spm. China in half, are pressing southwards from Changsha along an eightymile arc. The right extremity ot the arc is moving through the eastern Hunan Province, near Siangsiang, 5o miles northwards ,of Hengyang, and the left extremity has engulfed the railroad town of Liling, seventy-five miles north-eastwards of Hengyang. Simultaneously, the Japanese weakened the Chinese hold on the PeipingHankow railway with an additional advance of a mile, in which they captured Dhengyang, thus leaving only thirty miles of the railway in Chinese hands. ADVANCE ON HENGYANG CHUNGKING, June 21. An Allied communique says: The Japanese, after the capture of Changsha, crossed the Lu River, and are now within 65 miles of Hengyang, which is 100- air miles south-west of Changsha. BANQUET FOR MR: WALLACE. CHIANG KAI-SHEK SPEAKS. CHUNGKING, June 21. “China wishes to live in harmony and peace with ali nations. We iespect every nation’s integrity and independence. We dream no di earns of domination and we have no territorial ambitions,” said Marshal Chiang Kai-shek, in a speech at the banquet in honour of the United States Vice-President (Mr. Henry Wallace). He added that the Chinese believe in ever-increasing co-operation witn other countries in the economic, fmancial, cultural and political matters. China will welcome foreign investment and foreign technicians in the development of China’s immense material and industrial resources. Pending inauguration of collective security, which cannot be achieved until their enemies were annihilated, Britain, America, China and Russia must shoulder the responsibility oi maintaining international peace. Mr. Wallace replying, said there was good reason to hope that the eighth year of China’s resistance will be the final year of Japanese aggression in China, Asia, and the Pacific. He considered the three essentials for the maintenance of peace in Eastern Asia, and the Pacific were Japan’s demilitarisation, understanding and collaboration * between the Pacific nations, and self-government for the peoples of Asia. Mr. Wallace declared: The Japanese are trading space for time, but both space and time are against them.