LANDING REPULSED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 70, 20 February 1939, Page 7

LANDING REPULSED.

JAPANESE WARSHIPS

Received February ‘2O, 9.35 a.m. LONDON, Feb. 19.

Reuter’s Chungking correspondent says that the Chinese have repulsed a Japanese attempt to land at Huimer at the mouth of the Yungan River in Taichovv Bay. Warships approached on Friday, made a reconnaissance and withdrew overnight, but reappeared at dawn the next day. The warships crossed a boom at tho harbour entrance. A landing party from four motor-boats was driven back by Chinese, whose batteries opened a two-hour battle with the warships, whicn then withdrew. CHINESE IN ASCENDANCY. CHUNGKING, Feb. 18. The Chinese claim to have surpnsed the Japanese garrison in a sudden attack and to have recaptured the strategic city of Hukow-sien, dominating the northern end of Poyaiig Lake. The Chinese are now able to threaten Japanese shipping on the Yangtse and also to bottle up Japanese warships. An official Chinese report declares that the sphere of Japanese occupation does not extend beyond the glitter of their bayonets. The Chinese claim still ±o control 92 per cent, of the nine northern provinces which Japan has invaded. The Japanese, it is claimed, mostly control only the country towns, and the countryside remains in Chinese civil and military hands.