Getting Ready for Next Move

Horowhenua Chronicle, 26 February 1932, Page 7

Getting Ready for Next Move

i INVADERS CONSOLIDATE

THEIR GAINS.

;San Francisco Press Broadcast. SHANGHAI, Feb. 25. The, Chinese to-day warned shipping away from the .Japanese military lines on the Whangpoo, a step that' was taken as a notification that they w«re determined to stop with .guns the Japanese effort to land two divisions of army reinforcejDDtents. All foreign Consuls were asked by the Chinese authorities to get their nationals out Vf all sections of Shanghai -close to the Hong Kew strongiiolds without delay. ■A great conflagration started this morning as a result of a iheavy Japanese bombardment. •The fire, raging unchecked, lighted upr the northern 'T and was consuming buildings *>ver a wide area. Chinese artillery batteries jpidunded Japanese positions in Hong Kew and Chapei early tp•day while Japan's forces con* •olidated their positions in the Kiangwan-Miao Chang Chen *ector, preparatory to a second-

ary larger offensive to wipe out the Chinese defending armies. With 15,000 fresh troops from Tokyo being rushed from Woosung to Kiangwan and Miaochangchen and 14,000 more soldiers ready to land from transports in the Yangtse river, Lieut.-General Kenkiehi Uyeda this morning declared that the second offensive will not begin until he is certain of success. Bursts of machine-gun and trench mortar fire lit up the Kiangwan front at 2.30 o'clock this morning, where the Japanese were moving their new troops up to the front lines over military roads bridging the swamps between Miaochangchen and Woosung. Armoured cars and cavalry guarded the movements and formed a line protecting the right flank from Chinese machine-gun and infantry attacks, which have held up the Japanese advance for five days. Japanese artillery batteries were moved northward from the Kiangwan racecourse, protected by the Japanese front at Kiangwan village, which the Japanese now control.

Chinese sharp-shooters continued to harass Japanese communication lines, and machinegunning sounded close to General Uyeda's headquarters in the Temple of Heavenly Pleasure, south-east of Kiangwan.

At the same time, Chang Tien Pin, former Chinese Minister to Tokyo, asserted that no matter what results from the Japanese drives around Shanghai, China will invoke Article 16 of the League of Nations' Covenant when the League As 7 sembly meets in Geneva on March 3. Under Article 16, China will accuse Japan of waging war and will attempt to force the League members to sever trade relations with Japan and the Council to recommend military, naval and air operations by League members against Japan.

Foreign military intelligence officers reported that the Japanese have completely captured Kiangwan," the burned village at which a stern Chinese defence for five days brought the first Japanese a standstill. The observers agree the Japmnese official communique, which states that all but a few snipers have been driven out of Kiangwan and with the Japanese holding the village ruins, the Chinese snipers will be starved out.