REACHING CLIMAX

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19882, 8 March 1939, Page 7

REACHING CLIMAX

YEAR’S BIGGEST FIGHT

ISOLATION OF JAPANESE

RECAPTURE BY CHINESE

TOWNS SET ON FIRE

(Elec. Tel. Copyright —United Press Assn.) (Reed. March 7, 2.40 p.m.) LONDON. March 6.

The Hong Kong correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that what both sides claim to be the biggest battle of the year is now reaching a climax after 10 days of struggle along a line 350 miles in length in the Kiangsu, Hunan and Hupeh areas, involving the isolation of the Japanese at Yoyang and the recapture ol' the Tungting-Wuchang railway, though the Japanese are menacing Ichang, which is the gateway to the Yangtse Gorges. The losses seem evenly divided. The Japanese now claim that they have succeeded in crossing the Han River at Sanyangtien, thus menacing towns on the west bank, which, however, the Chinese have set on fire in consonance with the “scorched 'earth” policy. Heavy reinforcements are strengthening both sides. Three Japanese columns are converging on Paoying. A message from Tokio states that the Japanese claim to have captured Anlu. Marshal Chiang Kai-Shek’s confidential adviser, Mr. George Shepherd, has arrived 1 in London en route to New York. He expressed the opinion that the war in China would last for .at least another three years and was almost certain to end in a position of stalemate.