JAPANESE COLUMNS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 16 November 1937, Page 5

JAPANESE COLUMNS

CONVERGING ON SOOCHOW MASSES OF ( lIINESE MAY BE TRAPPED SIGNS OF DEMORALISATION INDICATED LARGE BATCHES OF PRISONERS (Unitcil I’ippn Association H.v Electric Telegraph-Copyright I (Received 16th November, 9.5 a.m.) TOKIO. 15th November. Latest advices reaching (he War Office show (hat two columns of Japanese front the Yangtze river arc rapidly convciging on Soochow, with the prospects of trapping masses of Chinese troops trying to escape to Nanking from the lake region behind Shanghai, thus facilitating' the capture of Nanking. Indications arc that the Chinese are now becoming demoralised. Japanese arc beginning to take large batches of prisoners. WITHERING MACIHNE-GUN FIRE (Received 16th November, 10.5 a.m.) SHANGHAI, 15th November. Chinese troops, driven from Quinsan and falling back on Soochow, were harassed by withering Japanese ma-chine-gun fire and bombs. Japanese warships seized twelve Chinese customs boats anchored in the Whangpoo river off the French bund, and sent the crews ashore. STRUCK BY BOMB RED CROSS DRESSING STATION COMPLETELY DESTROYED (Received 16th November. 10.5 a.m.) NANKING, 15th November. Reports front foreign observers at Soochow state that damage from the Japanese bombing is enormous. A Red Cross dressing station was struck by a half-ton bomb and completely disappeared. All the wounded are being removed from Nanking to-day into the interior. SOOCHOVNN RUINS RAIN OF BOMBS (Received 10th November, 9.0 a.m.) NANKING, 15th November. The Japanese have rained more than 700 bombs on Soochow during the past 24 hours. The town is in ruins.

OFFERS TO ARRANGE ARMISTICE

CAN SHORTLY BE EXPECTED RAPID CRUMBLING OF CHINESE RESISTANCE REPORTS FROM TOKIO (Received lGtli November, 10.35 a.m.) LONDON, 15th November. The Tokio correspondent of “The Times” says a Foreign Office spokesman announces that the Shanghai military situation is changing so rapidly that offers of good offices to arrange an armistice can shortly bo expected; but he adds that foreign powers desiring the restoration of peace should advise China to negotiate with Japan. Everything would depend on the actual character of the proposals. General Matsui, Japanese Commander-in-Chief at Shanghai, would not be likely to mention armistice terms to Admiral Sir Charles Little, British Commander-in-Chief on the China station, without consulting Tokio, reports to which indicate a rapid crumbling of Chinese resistance, the Japanese having traversed with unexpected rapidity the lakes and canals of the great plain west of Shanghai, The Japanese employed motorised sampans brought from Japan complete with civilian boatmen, and augmented these with abandoned Chinese junks. Part of the Japanese landing force from Hankow Bay made surprising aquatic porgress from Sunking, thirty-five miles west of Pingwang, where they cut the vital Soochow-Kashing railway. Hundreds of Chinese boatmen, waving home-made Japanese flags, approached the advancing Japanese, offering to sell or hire their craft to the invaders. DESPERATE POSITION OF CHINESE With the Japanese from Yangt.seKiang attacking Changshu on the north and those from Hangchow Bay astride the railway at Pingwang in the south, and the main body pressing the Chinese against the lakes, the only escape is via a bottleneck connecting Kunshan and Soochow, where despite fortifications experts believe a greater part of the Cliine.se in the Shanghai hinterland will be trapped and annihilated. Already large bodies are completely disorganised. A large Chinese counter-of-fensive in Southern Hopei was defeated. General Sung Chch-yuan, Governor of IL< i province, having received 500.000 dollars from Nanking, reorganised the Twentyninlh Army and advanced to Shunteh, with Taming as a base, occupying Jenhsian and Manho, but the Japanese drove him out, capturing Taming and Kwangping with two hundred machine guns and fifty-five prisoners, driving the defeated troops into the marshes in the north Chang river, where they arc expected to be trapped. Japanese planes are bombing Chinese troops at Weihsien, an isolated town forty miles east of Shupen, indicating that the Japanese movement of troops from North China to Shanghai enabled the Chinese temporarily to recover some of the lost ground. Naval planes continue the bombardment of the Chinese near the Yellow River, and captured the walled town of Kaotang. A Shanghai message states that though the Japanese troops have not actually reached Soochow, it was a target for a terrific air raid, involving the discharge of seven hundred bombs in thirty hours. DRAFT RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY BRUSSELS CONFERENCE ITALY VOTES AGAINST (Received 16th November, 9.20 a.m.) BRUSSELS, 15th November. The draft resolution swecpingly refuting Japan’s defence for violating Chinese territory was adopted by the

Nine-Power Conference. Italy voted against it and the three Scandinavians abstained from voting. JAPAN'S REFUSAL TO ATTEND IBritlsb Official WirelcnHi (Received iGth November, 10..T8 a.m.) RUGBY, 15th November. The views of the Governments represented at (lie Brussels Conference on the draft of the sharply worded declaration which Tokio's refusal to treat with the conference has called forth, will be.expressed at a meeting of the conference this afternoon. The terms of the draft, which announces that the participating Stales must consider what is to be their common attitude in view of Japan's refusal, were referred to the various Powers on Saturday. Mr Anthony Eden, British Foreign Minister, wili not be present at to-day's meeting.

DEMAND FOR ECONOMIC ACTION

CHINA’S FOUR-POINT PLAN (Received 16th November, 10.5 a.m.) BRUSSELS, 1511) November. Following up her demand for economic action against Japan, China presented a four-point plan aimed at crippling Japan by concerted international action. The points are (1) An embargo on materials useful for war and industry; (2) boycott of Japanese exports; (3) refusal of credits to Japan; (4) a flow of war materials and credits to China. The document shows statistically that the British Empire, France, America, and the Netherlands are most able to cripple Japan, because they are vital to her economic health.