FIRST STAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 307, 26 November 1937, Page 7

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COLLAPSE OF CHINESE. WUSIH OCCUPIED. LULL IN FIGHTING. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.-r-Copyright.) Received November 26, 10.55 a.m. SHANGHAI, Nov. 25. The Japanese announce that they have occupied Wusih after a seven days’ bombardment. It is claimed that the fall of the city is the first stage of the collapse of the Chinese “Hindenburg Line!” Once this is smashed the Japanese will face the main Nanking defences. Apart from fitful engagements in tlio Wushing and Wusih sectors the fighting is temporarily held up, while the Japanese prepare to resume the advance. A bride and bridegroom were killed and 200 others killed and wounded when an hotel at Changsha was bombed during the wedding ceremony. Mr Herbert Phillips, the British Consul-General at Shanghai, has warned British merchantmen to reply, readily and correctly, to signals from any Japanese warships. Britain has agreed that the Japanese shall board British ships to verify their nationality. “SHOULD ADMIT- DEFEAT. CHINA’S BEST POLICY. GENERAL’S ASSERTION. Received November 26, 8.5 a.m. LONDON, Nov. 25. “If China again refuses direct negotiations things may take a course which neither she nor Japan desires,” states the newspaper Nichi Nichi Shunbun. ' * General Ugawi, in a Press interview, said that the Japanese Government still adhered to its frequent declarations that Japan had no terri-torial-ambitions in China, but if warfare was prolonged it might change Japanese national aspirations. If Japan was driven to greater efforts and sacrifice the demands, I r people might correspondingly increase. The time had about come when China should admit defeat. The Daily Telegraph’s Tokio correspondent declared that General Ugaki said he attributed anti-British sentiment in Japan to a belief, quite unsubstantiated, that Britain was aiding China. This was probably due to Chinese resistance being stronger than expected, so outside aid was suspected.