FIGHTING IN CHINA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24449, 7 November 1940, Page 10

FIGHTING IN CHINA

THE JAPANESE FORCES' WITHDRAWAL FROM ZONES 1 HONGKONG, Nov. 5. Indications are increasing that_ the Japanese are shortening their lines drastically by withdrawing from several zones, especially South and Central China. Chinese columns following the retreating Japanese are nearing the port of Yamchow, which supplied the Japanese in Kwangsi. Similar withdrawals are reported from Chungshan, which is across the estuary from Hongkopg, from Swatow, and from Yochow, in Hunan.' The Chinese Daily News, published in Chungking, suggests that the withdrawals are preparation for a desperate Japanese attempt to seize Singapore or the East Indies before Anglo-American pressure crystallises. The Chinese reported that 10 huge fires are raging in Canton. Mounted Japanese cavalrymen are preventing the Chinese fighting the fires. Another Japanese officer, Lieutenant Hisao Makamura, was shot and severely wounded in Hongkew, the Japanese-occupied sector of the International Settlement, this evening by a party of Chinese gunmen. Japanese gendarmes cordoned the area and commenced a search for the assassins. This is the second attack on uniformed Japanese officers in Hongkew. Major Yochie Isobe was shot and killed last month.