PEACE PLEA IN CHINA

Southland Times, Issue 23540, 21 June 1938, Page 7

PEACE PLEA IN CHINA

JAPAN ANXIOUS TO END WAR?

OFFENSIVES CHECKED BY FLOODS THOUSAND SQUARE MILES INUNDATED (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received June 20, 9.50 p.m.) LONDON, June 20. Special interest is attached to a strong appeal for peace issued during the week-end by the provisional Government at Peiping, says the Peiping correspondent of The Times, because if it is not inspired by the Japanese it obviously has warm official Japanese support and approval. The appeal dilates on “the sacrifices of the Japanese and the suffering of the Chinese” in the past year, and declares that it will take a century to recover. It

urges the Chinese leader, Marshal Chiang Kai-shek to acknowledge defeat and cease fighting, and asks the other Chinese leaders at Hankow to join the provisional Government.

The appeal is interpreted in some quarters as evidence that the Japanese are anxious to end the war, which is drawing them deeply into the interior at an ever-increasing expense of men and money.

The floods will have a major effect on the war, says the Shanghai correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. The Japanese High Command is forced drastically to change its plans because the northern communications are cut and the mechanical columns are bogged and brought to a standstill, which has confined the offensive against Hankow to the Yangtze valley, which itself is in danger of inundation. Marshal Chiang Kai-shek can much more easily conduct his defence against this single line of attack. One-third of Kiukiang is already submerged, and the roads and railways essential to the original Japanese plan of envelopment are inundated for scores of miles.

The Chinese are taking advantage of the situation and are successfully counter-attacking. The flow of waters has compelled the Japanese to withdraw from the Peiping-Hankow railway, and the highways to Tencheny, another objective, are also threatened. The Lunghai district is impassable. The maximum floods are expected in July and August. z

The flooded area is now 1000 square miles. Two thousand villages are totally submerged and 1500 partly submerged. Out of 700,000 people threatened it is feared that 100,000 are beyond rescue. Many of those marooned have only bark roots for food.

The Japanese advancing to Hankow north of tile Yangtze claim to have occupied Hotaochen, 150 miles east of the main objective, says a message from Tokyo.

JAPANESE OFFICIAL ASSASSINATED GUNMEN INVADE SHANGHAI RESTAURANT LONDON, June 19. Three gun men strolled through a crowded restaurant on Foochow road last night and fired into a private dining room where members of the provincial government were holding a party, says the Shanghai correspondent of The Times. The shots killed Commissioner Jenpaoan and a sing-song girl, dangerously wounded another official and seriously wounded four others. Six of the eight Japanese who were among the 20 guests left before the attack was made. The assailants escaped during the panic. DARING ATTACK BY CHINESE PILOTS BOMBING OF JAPANESE WARSHIPS HANKOW, June 19.

Chinese aeroplanes daringly attacked a concentration of 50 Japanese warships (probably gun-boats). They claim to have sunk four and damaged one near Anking. Twelve Japanese pursuit aeroplanes engaged the raiders, whose superior speed enabled them to escape scatheloss. SLAVE TRADE ALLEGED IN HONG KONG CHINESE GIRL REFUGEES FROM CANTON (Received June 21, 1.5 a.m.) HONG KONG, June 20. The Hong Kong Herald, a British newspaper, alleges that Chinese girls aged from 14 to 21, mostly refugees from Canton, Swatow and Amoy, are being

sold at a secret slave market in Hong Kong for from £8 to £l7. PROTEST MARCH THROUGH LONDON STREETS RESOLUTION HANDED IN AT JAPANESE EMBASSY LONDON, June 19. As the culmination of a week’s meetings of the China Campaign Committee 2000 persons marched from Trafalgar Square to the Japanese Embassy. A police cordon allowed the deputation to hand to a man servant a resolution protesting against the bombardment of Canton and urging an embargo on the export of petrol to Japan and a boycott of Japanese goods-