JAPAN'S PLAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23213, 6 December 1938, Page 11

JAPAN'S PLAN

CUT OFF SHANGHAI BIG UNDERTAKING FORTS BEING BUILT MAKING NEW AIRPORT By - Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received December 5, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 5 The Japanese are building powerful fortifications, an air field and a vast military camp near Shanghai in order to cut off the city forcibly, and to maintain, if necessary, their refusal to re-open the Yangtse River to commerce, says the Daily Herald.

Naval engineers are carrying out the work with the aid of an army of Chinese prisoners and forced labourers. Of these, 30,000 arc excavating and filling in a swamp near Kiangwan for the airport with bricks and stones from the ruins of Chapei and Hongkew. Two hundred White Russians drive the stone trucks. A mile of modern jetties lias been built. Sales of confiscated Chinese land are financing the entire undertaking.

SLAUGHTER IN CHINA JAPANESE AIR RAIDS KEY POSITION CAPTURED CHUNGKING, Dec. 4 Japanese airmen twice bombed Kweilin, killing 5000 Chinese. The Japanese have completely occupied the Chiukiang delta and captured a position eight miles south of Fatshan. An official Japanese report claims that this will mean cutting off Marshal Chiang Kai-shek's munition supplies and eliminating the Chinese who are attempting to counter-attack Canton.