FAR EASTERN UNREST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17955, 6 December 1932, Page 5

FAR EASTERN UNREST

MANCHURIAN DRIVE JAPANESE CHECKED SHANGHAI, Doc. 5. Tho, general offensive launched by the combined Japanese and Manchukuo forces in the direction of Hailar on November 30 was halted temporarily at the Hingan mountains, where plans were prepared for a final drive towards Hailar. Japanese reports state that Hailar, a thriving railway market town on the western section of the great Chinese Eastern Railway, was bombed by Japanese aircraft, compelling General Su Ping-Wen ’s hurried departure by camel train, though the town is still held by anti-Mancliukuo forces, who have 250 Japanese prisoner's. The immediate purpose of the Japanese drive w r as to release these prisoners. The Nipponese are campaigning under difficult conditions, the temperature being 40 degrees below zero, the plans covered with snow, and the rivers frozen.

Although the Shantung civil war has been satisfactorily settled, the rival generals are lighting bitterly for the possession of the opium rights of the province, where during the past year, arable lands have been converted into poppy fields and enormous quantities of tho native drug manufactured.