CHINESE TROOPS NEAR CANTON

Southland Times, Issue 23796, 19 April 1939, Page 5

CHINESE TROOPS NEAR CANTON

JAPANESE RETIRE TO LAST DEFENCES IRRESISTIBLE OFFENSIVE FORGES AHEAD LONDON, April 17. The battle for Canton overshadows all other operations throughout China, says the Hong Kong correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. The Chinese offensive, which has been unprecedently well sustained, is irresistible in its recovering of the outer environs which the Japanese have held since October. The defenders are hurling lorries full of troops and all available mechanized units to the outskirts to reinforce the stricken fighters, but these moves are apparently countermatched by fresh and eager divisions which are steadily reinforcing the Chinese Commander-in-Chief (General Char.g Fa-kwei) who is forging a passage to Canton in the hope of encircling the city, from which he is 18 miles distant. He is supported by subsidiary columns which are repelling the Japanese to their last defences. The Chinese claim that one column of their army is within 12 miles of Canton. Another unit from the north covered 16 miles in 48 hours and is now within 19 miles of Canton.

In Tokyo the Japanese Minister of War (General Itagaki) in a statement said: “Assistance from foreign Powers is solely responsible for Marshal Chiang Kai-shek’s stubborn resistance. Japan does not intend deliberately to sever diplomatic relations. The commanders have ordered their troops to do their utmost to protect foreign lives and property, even at the sacrifice of strategic advantages, but the soldiers deplore the concrete evidence of foreign assistance to the Chinese.”