FALL OF WUSIH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 304, 23 November 1937, Page 7

FALL OF WUSIH

CHINESE FLEEING. MESSAGE TO MARSHAL. URGED TO SURRENDER. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Received November 23, 10.5 a.m. SHANGHAI, Nov. 22. The Japanese have occupied Wusih, a pivotal point in the second “HindenGurg Line” defending Nanking. The Chinese are fleeing in confusion, pursued by ’planes. The Japanese claim that the fall of the city means the definite failure of the Chinese to resist tlio westward advance. A large Japanese fleet is ceaselessly bombarding Kiang-yin in an attempt to blow up the boom across the Yangtse River. Success would enable further flanking movements, but the Chinkiang boom upstream checks the ships intending to bombard Nanking. A Japanese ’plane flew o-ver Nanking to-day and dropped a message urging Marshal Chiang Kai-shek to surrender. Later, a Japanese squadron engaged the Chinese over the city, the Chinese using the Soviet ’planes for the first time. One Japanese machine was brought down. Japanese naval men seized the cargo of the British steamer Kaiying, consisting of rice belonging to the Chinese Government and intended for the troops. Wusih is several miles north of Soocliow, which the Japanese recently captured, on the railway line from Shanghai to Nanking, the Chinese capital.