NEW COMMANDER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 73, 23 February 1938, Page 9

NEW COMMANDER

GENERAL MATSUI REPLACED. JAPANESE ARMY CHANGES. CAPTURE OF KWAIKING. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received February 23, 10.50 a.m. SHANGHAI, Feb. 22. The Japanese Commander (General Matsui) has departed for Tokio by air. His successor will be General Shunrutu Hata, with Major-General Kawa.be as Chief of Staff. A Tokio despatch reports that the Japanese have captured the walled city of Hwaiking, ten miles north of the Yellow River. The fate of the defender, General Sung-Cheyuan, is unknown. The Japanese have bombed Hangchow, 300 miles north of Canton, from the air. “CHINA WILL WIN.” ADVISER’S OPINION. PLEA TO WESTERN NATIONS. HONG KONG, Feb. 11. “China will win the war eventually» if the Western nations cease to raise obstacles to the importation of arms. “'‘Japan is just learning that to win the war it will be necessary to conquer all China, and before she can do that Japan will crumple up.” That is what Mr W. H. Donald, Australian adviser to Cliiang Kaishek, told the Sydney Daily Telegraph’s Hong Kong correspondent. Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the acting Premier (Mr H. H. Kung),_and Mr T. V. Soong are in Hong Kong, and are believed to be negotiating for the importation of arms into China. The Japanese view is equally confident. The Japanese Army has been “completely rallied and reorganised,’’ according to its spokesman, and is ready for a further drive. The first action of Rear-Admiral Percy Noble, after he took command of the China station, was to protest against the Japanese landing at Wei-hai-wei on the Shantung coast.