CHINA AND JAPAN

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11965, 4 February 1932, Page 5

CHINA AND JAPAN

FIGHTING CONTINUES ■SEVERE ('ASTJALTEES. United Press Assn—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. SHANGHAI, February 3. Fighting continued intermittently all night. The Japanese naval and field batteries shelled and broke the Chinese positions in front of the North Railway station. There were heavy casualties on both sides. The sharp crackle of machine-gun lire and rifles in the Hong, Kew district terrified th e residents. When additional troops and naval vessels are here the total available foreign forces will be approximately 17,000 British, French, American and Italian regulars .with volunteer corps. Nanking is comparatively quiet, but feverish military activities are progressing. Very few firms are operating, all the available men having joined the volunteer corps. The banks are functioning for a half-day only owing to depleted staffs. All the Chinese business houses are closed. WOO,SUNG FORTS ATTACKED. .SHANGHAI, February 3. Japanese land and sea forces today attacked the Woosnng forts, ,-sixteen miles from Shanghai, just when marines and Japanese officials had agreed here that neither side would resort to further hostilities, unless provoked. Six Japanese destroyers bombarded Chinese forts to cover disembarkation of a landing force.

Large bodies of Japanese soldiers, believed to approximate a division, ucre reported being landed at a considerable distance clown the Whangpoo river from Shanghai, by slops recently arrived from Japan. Fourteen Japanese airplanes were flying over Shanghai shortly before noon? A battalion of 800 British troops arrived on the cruiser Berwick today and were landed on the Bund in, the International Settlement. This morning military observers reported that the Chinese emplacement i were filled with loot from warehouses near the north station, where firing was desultory. Thousands of packages of cigarettes, bolts of cloth and other merchandise were piled indiscriminately, with soldiers helping themselves. THE NEW BATTLE, TOKYO. Febi •uarv 3. Dispatches? received here" this afternoon telling of the openino- of Hie new battle at Shanghai, said l hmese had set fire to the -Japanese district of Hong Kew, in the International Settlement, ancl a large section of it was burning ike newspapers began ervbio- their extra papers in the streets, around hie foreign Office, describing the battle, while Foreign Minister ioshizawa, was conferring with the Ambassador of the United States. ARTILLERY DUEL. , r . SHANGHAI, February 3. Ine Coinese and Japanese forces fought an artillery duel yesterday apparently as a prelude to a greater battle in which the Japanese guns bombarded the Chinese formations for four hours, seriously damaging their lines. CENSORSHIP ON NEWS. LONDON. February 3. The Great Xorthern Cable Company announced at 1 o'clock this afternoon that a- censorship has been impo»ed on cable dispatches from China.