NEW OFFENSIVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23029, 5 May 1938, Page 15

NEW OFFENSIVE

CLAIM BY CHINESE INVADERS DRIVEN BACK MUNITIONS FROM GERMANY THE JAPANESE DEMANDS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received May 4, 5.8 p.m.) LONDON. May 3 The Chinese, in a message from Hankow, claim that in a general offensive launched in the south of Shantung Province they have driven back the Japanese forces for a distance of seven miles. The correspondent of the Times at Shanghai discloses that the Chinese had a success in south Shantung, piercing the Japanese centre east of Taierchwang, due to the assembling of immense reserves capable of reinforcing any adjacent Bector. Three flying columns are converging on Tancheng. Messages from Hankow give the reserves as 800,000. They claim a further advance of five miles north-east of Taierchwang as the result of all-night fighting on a 20-mile front from Yihsien to PeiHsien, east of Taierchwang. The Chinese assert they have cut the' Japanese line from Ichowfu, on the Linyi-Tancheng front. The German Ambassador to Japan, Major-General Ott, is reported to have been recalled to Berlin to confer with Herr Hitler after the Rome visit upon

Japan's demands that Germany cease exporting munitions to China and withdraw her army instructors with the Chinese, says the Berlin correspondent of the News Chronicle. The Japanese Ambassador to Russia, Mr. Sigemitsu, handed a Note to the Soviet protesting against Russia's continued military help to China, says the Riga correspondent of the Times. JAPAN'S WAR CABINET STERN MEASURES REORGANISATION DEMANDED MILITARY DICTATORSHIP ' TOKIO, April is In an attempt to save the situation in China, drastic reorganisation of Japan's War Cabinet is demanded. A purge of the high command of the Japanese Army is also contemplated. Ministers will be asked to hand over the remnants of their authority to a military dictatorship. The War Minister, General Sugiyama, who has returned to Tokio after a tour of the battlefronts in China, insists upon stern measures. The Prime Minister, Prince Konoye, is reported to have promised a more "vigorous" policy.

SHANGHAI INCIDENT HOLD-UP OF LORRY PROTEST BY THE BRITISH SHANGHAI, May 3 The British military authorities at Shanghai state that the troops involved in the Garden Bridge incident yesterday were naval ratings in khaki uniforms. A Japanese officer, attempting to persuade a British non-commissioned officer to accompany, him to the Japanese headquarters, twice seized him by the arm, but retired from the Consulate when the man refused to budge. The British authorities are making representations to the army headquarters of the Japanese regarding the incident.

Naval officials say that the naval supply lorry crossing Garden Bridge was stopped by a Japanese sentry, although the driver was possessed of a permit. The Japanese permitted the lorry to pass after an altercation. The Japanese protested to the British authorities alleging that the naval ratings were attempting to take munitions to Hongkew without notice.