LOYANG ENTERED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24894, 16 May 1944, Page 5

LOYANG ENTERED

BOMBING OF FRANCE

GAIN BY JAPANESE

CHINESE COUNTER-ATTACK (Recti. 0.35 p.m.) CHUNGKING, May 14

The Japanese yesterday broke through gaps west, east and northwest in the city walls of Loyang, the strategic centre west of the Pei-ping-Hankow railway now being closely invested, says a Chinese communique. They are, however, being halted. Enemy armoured units are vigorously attacking the north-western suburbs. Fighting in the Mienchin sector has shifted to areas east of the city. There are no appreciable changes on other sectors. In a counter-attack the Chinese have broken the Japanese hold on the Pei-ping-Hankow railway by recapturing Suiping, 100 miles south of Chengchow, and also encircling the enemy at Chumatien, five miles south- of Suiping. The Associated Press says the counterattack was at a point where the Japanese force driving down from the north last week joined the southern column, and eo completed the conquest of the railway. The Japanese are already reported to have brought en-

gineers for the reconstruction of the lines which the Chinese had removed. Chungking authorities, while recognising the threat to Tungkwan, the next step along the historic route to the interior, by the Japanese thrust across the Yellow River from Shansi Province, are inclined to regard the movement as a diversionary feint at the most. They are convinced that Japanese plans call for the occupation, not only of the Peiping-Hankow railway, but the control of the whole of the Canton-Hankow railway as an answer to Admiral Nimitz's avowed project of landing American troops on the coast of China. A Chungking spokesman says he considers that if the Japanese occupy Loyang they may hold the city as a bulwark to the defence of the PeipingHankow railway.

KOHIMA STRUGGLE JAPANESE HOLD RIDGE BRITISH OCCUPY HILLS (Reed. 5.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 15 The 14th Army has now established itself on all six hills overlooking Kohima, Assam, and is fighting hard to clear the Japanese off a long ridge, the most important of these high positions. The enemy is strongly dug in along the top of this ridge and is putting up a stubborn resistance. A correspondent at Dimapur sUys the Japanese on the ridge are getting short of water and every evening they hang parachutes in trees to collect dew and rain. It is one of our nightly tasks, he says, t-o pepper these parachutes with bullets so that the enemy has to go thirsty again next day. "Indian opinion does not quite know what to make of military operations in Burma and Assam which, although the monsoon is almost upon us, are still apparently in a highly inconclusive state," says the Times correspondent in Delhi. "Indians had accepted the Japanese offensive as a shot bolt for this campaigning season, but there is a good deal of speculation on the extent to which the Allies are likely to gain the objectives they have set themselves upon. "Those objectives, it must be admitted, have not been more closely defined than as the clearance of as much of Northern Burma as necessary to enable the construction of the Ledo Road to proceed," the correspondent adds. "This is taken to imply the intention on General Stilwell's part to get as far south as Mogaung and Myitkyina, the latter being the starting point of the road linking up with the Burma Road to China. General Stilwell in the past few weeks has been checked 30 miles north of Mogaung,

CARDINALS' APPEAL

(Reed. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, May J4 French Cardinals have addressed an appeal to the Catholic clergy of the British Empire and the United States, says the Vichy radio. "The bombing of France fills our hearts with sadness and anxiety," states the appeal. "Thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded in their homes. Churches and hospitals also have been destroyed. We ask you to intervene with your respective Governments, that the civilian population of France and Europe may be spared as much a.s possible. "We are convinced that, with more care, military objectives would not be confused with humble dwellings in the neighbourhood. We believe that our towns, our works of art and our churches, in particular, should be spared."

Replying to the appeal, the 8.8.C., in a broadcast in 24 languages, issued the following warning to the people of occupied Europe: "Our pilots realise that the lives and homes of our friends are at stake. Therefore they will exercise the greatest possible care, but the scale of these attacks will inevitably add to the suffering which you—our staunch friends—have so courageously endured throughout the war ; "We know the extreme difficulty of evacuation at present. Nevertheless, we ask you most urgently to take every step possible to move from the vicinity of all important railway and industrial installations."

COAL REACHES LISBON SUPPLIES FROM ALLIES LONDON, May 14 The arrival at Lisbon of a cargo of 8000 tons of coal in a British ship from India is reported by Renter's correspondent in Lisbon. He says that this effectively gives the lie to the suggestion that Allied coal supplies for Portugal are being held up in connection with negotiations on wolfram exports to Germany. The correspondent adds that supplies of Welsh coal are necessarily irregular for the reasons that they are connected with military operations. '