JAPANESE DRIVE RESISTED

Southland Times, Issue 23288, 26 August 1937, Page 5

JAPANESE DRIVE RESISTED

Intense Aerial And Naval Attack INTERNATIONAL AREA IN DANGER RETREATING TROOPS MAY STORM BARRICADES (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received August 26, 12.40 a.m.) SHANGHAI, August 25. In brilliant sunshine and under a cloudless sky the Japanese launched a general offensive on all roads leading to Shanghai from Woosung. The Chinese have concentrated large forces in their trenches, and are holding their lines despite intense air bombing and shelling from warships, which covered the landing of heavy artillery. Huge fires have started at Pootung and Hongkew. A Japanese Army spokesman stated that unless the Chinese cease firing from Pootung Japan would be compelled to dislodge them. If they retired to Nantao Japan must regard it as a military area and shell it, despite, its large civil population. The danger that retreating Chinese will attempt to storm the barricades at the International Settlement is becoming graver. Artillery is arriving from Hong Kong and all measures have been prepared to resist attack and to evacuate the settlement as a last resort. An inventory has been taken of property, business and personal, in the event of the necessity of claiming damages. British military experts estimate that the Chinese have lost 7000 killed and 11,000 wounded in the fighting at Shanghai, excluding thousands of civilian casualties from the air raids and naval bombardments. EXCHANGE OF RATOS Despite exchanges of bombing raids and anti-aircraft fire from the Japanese warships and the landing of a certain number of Japanese reinforcements, nothing decisive occurred on the Shanghai front yesterday, though the Japanese claim to have repulsed sporadic attacks. It cannot yet be said that a major battle has taken place. General Iwane Matsui, a former Com-mander-in-Chief at Formosa, has been appointed the new Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese forces at Shanghai. He has already taken over his duties. The Chinese have not yielded ground to any appreciable extent and their stubborn resistance is preventing the Japanese regulars, though supported by naval guns, from penetrating the defensive lines. The ambitious Japanese onslaught north of the city has not progressed despite hours of fighting. Aid has recently arrived and the reinforcements are reputed to aggregate 54,000 men. The Japanese also claim that they repulsed 27 Chinese planes at the mouth of the Whangpoo river and shot down several. The campaign in North China is developing on the lines expected, the Japanese objective being to crush the Chinese defenders of the Nankow Pass between armies advancing north-east-wards in Chihli and south-eastwards in the Chahar province. The announcement from Tokyo of the Japanese capture of the Nankow Pass was premature; a battle is now in full progress. advance in north A Japanese army from Kalgan, the possession of which is still doubtful, is advancing along the Peiping-Suiyan railway hoping to entrap the 50,000 Chinese defenders. The Japanese later claimed that they had routed the Chinese at Kalgan which they expect to enter today, forcing the Chinese to retreat towards the Shansi province. Prince Teh Wang, the chief Mongolian Government executive, who is supporting the Japanese, claims to have surrounded a Chinese detachment, indieting 3000 casualties and suffering Other Japanese troops frorn crossed the mountains west of Pam Tailiang, driving the Chinese towards the Suiyan railway, which was subsequently bombed from the air. . Meanwhile the Fourth Chinese Division furiously attacked the advancing Japanese west of Nankow but because of the arrival of Japanese reinforcements was unable to break the line after a desperate conflict in heavy raj* 1 - For 24 ho"urs aircraft bombed the Chinese concentrations. The Japanese claim to have halted the Chinese offensive south-west of Peiping and also to have counter-at-tacked successfully on the Liang-siang sector, driving the Chinese into the mountains. Nevertheless, a Japanese spokesman admits that the Chinese are offering strong opposition along _ the Liang-siang-Nankow. railway. Rain is hampering the operations of both sides.