JAPANESE ADVANCE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 177, 22 February 1933, Page 5

JAPANESE ADVANCE

MAY BEGIN AT ANY MOMENT Country United in Support of Government Presn Association —Copyright Reed. Today, 10 a.m. Peking, Feb. 21. —Messages from Tokio, where there is a strict censorship, state the Japanese advance may begin at any moment. ;■■■ Passenger traffic between Mukden and Shan Hal Kuan-has been suspended from yesterday. I*l ■ Press Association —Copyright Reed. Today, ]0.20 a.m. Tokio, Feb. 21.—Except for labour, which is numerically negligible, political parties are united in support of the Government in its hour of national crisis. Today a. mass meeting of 8000 leading citizens of Tokio expressed stern determination to vindicate to the world Japan's policy, established to secure peace in the Far East. Presg Association.—Copyright. Shanghai, Feb. 21.—Fighting has commenced at Chaoyangsu, where Chinese troops endeavoured to surround the Japanese garrison, states a Japanese dispatch. There are apparently about 30,000 Chinese concentrated in a triangle about 2000 Japanese. The Japanese are launching a coun-ter-attack and are believed to intend to proceed to Peipiao for the purpose of controlling the branch line from Pekin on the Mukden railway.

Japan claims, that its action in Jeliol is necessitated by its protocol with Manchukuo. In a statement to the League Japan declares that the Chinese have .144,000 troops in Jehol itself and 33,000 massed immediately south of the Great Wall, which constituted a most serious menace. The statement adds that the Japanese will not advance south of the Great Wall unless Chinese troop movements compel this step for strategic reasons.