SETBACKS IN CHINA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25853, 25 May 1945, Page 5

SETBACKS IN CHINA

JAPANESE LOSING STING

ANOTHER OFFENSIVE DOUBTFUL

- . 'RUGBY, May 23. The Japanese armies ui Central China have lost a great deal of their sting as the result of the setbacks in the . Honan, Hupeh, and Hunan Provinces, and it is doubtful whether they will be able to stage another major offensive. That is the opinion of military observers at Chungking, cables a correspondent. This new situation is attributed to these factors: First, the Japanese face a growing number of American-trained and equipped Chinese troops who. for the first time in China’s history, can be shifted by air from one front to another; secondly, the Japanese coastal defences are being strengthened to meet a possible Allied landing, and this has drained the best man-power from the interior; thirdly, Allied war supplies to China are gradually increasing. enabling the Fourteenth United States Army Air Force to give unprecedented support to Chinese ground troops; fourthly. Japanese morale is getting lower as war-weary front-line soldiers learn the truth of the Burma and Pacific campaigns, and of the bombing of the homeland.

If the Chinese thrust down the Kweichow-Kwangsi-Weicmow railway develops, it will seriously threaten the Japanese overland escape route from Indo-China.

Chinese troops advanced five miles in the Hunan province and reached within 20 miles of Pao-chingi Other Chinese in the Kwangsi province reached Hwai-Yuan -chen, 45 miles north-west of Liuchow

Reports from Hunan say that the Japanese were seriously weakened by the loss of 17,000 troops during the drive towards Chih-kiang.