CHINESE VICTORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23968, 19 May 1941, Page 8

CHINESE VICTORY

CLAIM BY CHUNGKING JAPANESE DRIVEN BACK TOKIO REJECTS MEDIATION

(Reed G. 30 p.m.) LONDON. May 17 The Chungking Central JSews Agency reports that the Japanese have suffered a disastrous defeat in the Hupeh Province, in Central China, where 10,000 Japanese have been killed or captured during 10 days' fighting. It is claimed that" the Japanese have been driven back toward their base in north, central and western Hupeh, from which their offensive began on May 5. The Japanese official spokesman at Shanghai,' Mr. Akiyama, said the Chinese sth Army sustained heavy losses in the recent fighting in the southern Shansi Province. The generals and staff of five Chinese divisions wero killed and 120.000 troops were trapped. Major Shozo Nakamura, head of the information section, said to-day that Japanese troops on a 2.500-mile front in China would prevent the Chinese from obtaining substantial material aid from the United States or Britain. Major Nakamura asserted that the Japanese forces occupy a massed front from the Kwantung coast in South China through Central and North China to Inner Mongolia. The spokesman of the Labi net information Bureau, Viscount Ishii, said that Mr. Matsuoka and the Japanese Minister to Nanking, Mr. Honda, had reached agreement on Japan s policy in China, both favouring the bolstering ui) of the Japanese-sponsored Nanking Government and also rejecting third Power mediation, including the United States and Germany, regarding the Sino-Japanese hostilities. HONOURED IN TOKIO AXIS AND SOVIET ENVOYS AIR DEFENCE OF CITIES fßocd. 5.35 p.m.) TOKIO, May 17 The Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Matsuoka, and the Minister of War, General Tojo, attended a luncheon in honour of the German, Italian and Russian Ambassadors to-day. The Prime Minister, Prince Konoye, proposing the toast of the Tripartite Alliance, said German, Italian and Russian goodwill had made Mr. Matsuoka's European tour a success. Authorities representing the largest six cities in Japan met in Tokio to discuss Japan's air defences. The newspapers said speeial attention was being given to defending factories and urban areas. . The newspaper Niehi Nichi has charged the British Government with an ''inhuman attempt" to disturb Japan's foodstuffs policy by ordering natives in west Pacific islands not to sell copra which the Japanese had contracted to purchase at 100 yen a ton. for manufacturing to relieve the cooking oil shortage. The newspaper Yomiuri asserts that Japanese trade parleys with Java are at the erossroads because the Dutch are showing little sincerity, due to their belief in an ultimate, British victory. The Yomiuri says Japan expects only economic co-operation, in return for which Java should follow the example of Thailand and Indo-China and recogj nise Japan as the leader of an East I Asia co-prosperity sphere.