SWEEPING VICTORIES CLAIMED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 29 March 1938, Page 5

SWEEPING VICTORIES CLAIMED

JAPANESE FORCES STILL 100 MILES APART VAIN EFFORTS TO UNITE (Received 29th March, 12.30 p.m.) HANKOW. 28th March. The Chinese claim sweeping victories on all fronts in the Northern Tientsin-Pukow railway sector. The Japanese losses at Tsaochwang alone exceed a thousand, and five tanks, two field guns and 40 machine-guns were captured.

The Japanese defeats are the outcome of vain efforts by forces in North Central China to unite along the railway. They are still a hundred miles apart with the crack General Li Tsung-Jen’s forces between them.

The Japanese for the first time since the outbreak of the war are fighting desperately, aware that the campaign may depend on the struggle for Huschow which is 400 miles distant from their bases, Tientsin and Tsingtao. A quarter of a million Japanese on the Huschow front are facing half a million Chinese who for the first time are more than holding their own in | fair fight. VICTORIES CELEBRATED ‘Received 29th March, 12.7 p.m.) HANKOW, 28th March. The city is celebrating the victories claimed in the Commander-in-Chief’s bulletin announcing that the Chinese offensive which opened on 26th March recaptured Lincheng and Tsing, and is at present encircling Tengshien. It has routed the Japanese who are retreating eastward, but a number are isolated in the neighbourhood of Lincheng owing to the Chinese tearing up the TientsinPukow railway at thirty points. The Chinese also claim the recapture of Tawenkou, cutting off the communications of Japanese advancing towards Hsuchow. The Chinese have begun an offensive in south-east Shantung, causing the Japanese to withdraw to Chahsien. INITIATIVE LOST BY INVADERS (Received 29th March. 1.35 p.m.) LONDON. 28th March. The Shanghai correspondent of “The Times” says the Japanese army spokesman largely rejects the Chinese claims, saying the villages which the Chinese entered were strategically abandoned; but the invaders have undoubtedly lost the initiative.

Hankow messages give the credit of the Chinese successes to General Chiang Kai-shek, who returned by plane from various fronts where he directed the counter-offensive. The Japanese admit that the Chinese crossed the Yellow River north of Honan.