Trapped “ Like Rats in a Bag "

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 114, 17 May 1938, Page 7

Trapped “ Like Rats in a Bag "

LUNGHAI RAILWAY CUT IN DRIVE ON SUCHOW Vnlted Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. LONDON, May 15. “The Japanese, by cutting the Lunghai railway at three points, claim that they have caught the Chinese armies like rats in a bag,” says the Tokio correspondent of The Times. “A dispatch states that the Japanese are gradually shortening their encircling lines in order to develop one of the greatest annihilating operations of the war. "The Chiang Kai-shek Line, which took seven years to construct, is allegedly collapsing, and the Chinese defending Suchow have been thrown inextricably into confusion. Air squadrons are bombing fugitives and have destroyed telegraph and telephone offices at Suchow. "Reports from Taiyuanfu state that 20,000 Chinese volunteers fighting for the Japanese crossed from Shansi into Shensi and occupied Suanchwan, where they were joined by portions of the mutinous Shansi and Szechuan armies, who are marching on Sianfu.”

The British United Press correspondent at Shanghai says that four Japanese armies, comprising 16 mechanised columns, are participating in the final drive on Suchow, from where General Lt Tsuttg-jen, one of China’s best strategists, is reported to have fled by air, leaving behind him half of the army of 400.000 men whom he led in to Suchow last week. German advisers planned and supervised the Chinese retreat. The Chinese deny that it is a rout, declaring that the most important equipment is being concentrated at Kaifeng while 200,000 men remain at Suchow to sell their lives dearly in a rearguard action. Meanwhile, the Japanese armies of North and South China will be functioned to form a single force able to change direction at will instead of fighting on separate fronts. CHINESE VICTORY CHECKS JAPS JAP CLAIMS PREMATURE Received Monday, 7.5 p.m. LONDON, May 16. The Chinese victory in northern Anwhei has at least temporarily checked the Japanese drive in the Lunghai area, says the Daily Telegraph’s Hongkong correspondent. The Chinese drove their opponents from Siaohsien and Yungcheung, threatening the Japanese lines of communication and indicating the premature nature of the Japanese assertion that their northern and southern armies had effected a junction.