FIGHTING IN EAST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22578, 17 November 1936, Page 9

FIGHTING IN EAST

BATTLE REPORTED CHINESE AND MONGOLS BOMBING BY AEROPLANES RIVAL POWERS' BACKING By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received November 17, 1.35 a.m.) PEKING, Nov. 16 Fighting is reported to have broken out in the Suiyuan Province, Inner Mongolia. Three thousand Chahar cavalry, supported by infantry and artillery, attacked the Chinese entrenched north-east of Taolin. Eight Japanese aeroplanes dropped bombs, some of which are alleged to have been gas bombs, on the Chinese, who repulsed six assaults. The attackers withdrew in a snowstorm. An earlier message said that hostilities on a large scale between Mongols, backed by the Japanese, and the Chinese, supported bj* Russia, were expected to break out at any moment on the Turkestan, Mancluirian, Mongolian and Siberian frontiers. About 300,000 troops and tribesmen are ready for battle on both sides, aiming at indirect control of the PekingSuiyuan railway, in the neighbourhood of Peking, and other communications likely to be important in the event of a Russo-Japanese clash. The Times' Tokio correspondent says the Asahi Shiinuun reports that the Army has presented to the Treasury a six-year programme for the exnenditure of £361,630,000, of which half would be used for rearmament and tho remainder for enabling the former annual expenditure to be doubled.