ADVANCE IN BURMA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24971, 14 August 1944, Page 3

ADVANCE IN BURMA

BRITISH TAKE TAUNGNI DRIVE TOWARD BHAMO (Kfrd. 5,35 p.m.) LOXDOX, Aug. 12 British troops in Northern Burma have captured the strategic railway I town of Taungni, 17 miles south of Mogaung, reports a Chinese communique. The-British found Taungni wrecked and disease rampant. Most of the country in the area is flooded. Bridges are cut and the transport of equipment and artillery is almost impossible. The Japanese offered little resistance. and left their dead unburied. Two hundred Japanese were counted. The next stage in the reopening of land communications wjth China has begun with the drive from Myitkyina by Chinese troops and Kachin levies in the direction of Blianio, reports a special representative of the Associated Press at Kandy. They have already covered seven miles along the road toward this important road and river communications centre, and the biggest town, after Mandalay, in Central Burma. Fourteenth Army troops in Assam gained another two miles in their push toward the Burma frontier down the Tiddirn Road. Progress is necessarily unspectacular, with the enemy leaving pockets of resistance every few miles. NEW CHINESE ATTACK EFFORT TO STEM JAPANESE (Rrrd. 5.35 p.m.) CHUNGKING, Aug. 12 Chinese forces striking in a new area ir) an effort to thwart the Japanese in Central China have recovered Pingsiang, 100 miles north-west of Hengyang, and pushed the enemy 30 miles to the west, as far as the outskirts of Tiling, says a Chinese communique. It adds that the Chinese continue to press attacks near Hengyang, with both sides suffering heavy lasses. General Stilwell's communique reports that American Liberators carried out their second large-scale attack on Japanese-held Changsha yesterday, causing fires and explosions. Fighter aircraft patrolling the Yellow River shot down two enemy planes and set on fire a grounded plane near Pucljow, All the Allied aircraft returned.

POST-WAR AUSTRIA JOINT ALLIED COMMISSION (Hocil. 5.35 p.m.) NEW YORK. Aug. 12 Britain, America and Russia have decided to establish a joint commission to govern Austria until the Austrians are able to create conditions necessary for economic and political independence, states the New York Times correspondent in Washington. It is understood that the Allied terms of surrender will demand the permanent separation of Austria from Germany. It is believed that the Berlin area is the only other German territory the Allies propose to administer jointly. The remainder of the Reich will be occupied by one of the three armies. MURDER OF BLUM MOSCOW REPORT DENIED (R«cd. 5.35 p.m.) ALGIERS, Aug. 12 The report of the murder of M. Leon Blum, former Socialist Prime Minister of France, given by the Moscow radio last week, is denied by the President of the French National Assembly, M. Felix Gouin, who defended M. Blum at the liiom trial. M. Gouin says he saw M. Blum after tho alleged date of his death. A cablegram published on Saturday quoted two Russian engineers who said, that M. Blum died in a German "camp of extermination" in Lublin, Poland, in 1943, AUDIENCE WITH POPE ANGLICAN BISHOP'S VISIT (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 12 The Pope recently talked for 45 minutes with Dr E, S. Woods, Bishop of Lichfield,, says the Associated Press. This is the first time the Pope has given a private audience to an Anglican bishop. It is believed in New York that a possiblo fusion of tho Church of England and tho Roman Catholic Church was discussed. In view of tho Bishop of Lichfield's High Church predileotion, it is thought ho was chosen to seek once again common ground on which fusion might be feasible. It is recalled that Viscount Halifax's father and Cardinal Mercier sounded tho possibilities togother at tho Malines conference, and during the last war Pope Benedict received a group of American clergy who favoured union.

WASHINGTON TALKS POST-WAR SECURITY (R-rrd. 0.10 p.m.) I/OXDON, Aug. 13 Tho four-Power security talks will begin 011 August 21. The British group, headed by Sir Alexander Cadogan, arrived in Washington yesterday. The talks will have special reference to the organised conduct of world affairs in [ the period from Germany's collapse until the United Nations form some sort of permanent organisation to maintain peace and order. VISIT TO ALEUTIANS NEED FOR STRONG BASES (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Aug, 1J President Roosevelt has visited the Aleutian Islands. He made the trip last week in a warship in company with Vice-Adiniral Fletcher, Commander of the North Pacific Fleet. Speaking informally at a luncheon during his visit, Mr Roosevelt asserted that strong military bases must be maintained in the Aleutians to prevent future generations of Japanese from attacking the Pnited States, -Mr Roosevelt congratulated the troops for ing the Japanese and converting the j islands into a formidable defenco ring. 1