EXODUS SOUTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 132, 7 June 1938, Page 7

EXODUS SOUTH

HANKOW INHABITANTS DEFENDERS OF LANGFENG IN FULL RETREAT Received June 6, 8.30 p.m. HANKOW, June 5. Thousands of Hankow’s 1,000,000 Inhabitants are retreating from the air terror in an orderly exodus southwards. A vanguard of 300,000 civilians is en route to Yunnan, 800 miles away, rickshaws, cars, carts and barrows being used for transport. The Chinese defenders of I <ngfeng are in full retreat, possibly according to plan, while the supreme command is drawing up plans regarding Hankow; whose communications with Kaifeng have been cut by the advancing Japanese. At Tientsin a bomb-thrower, believed to be a Chinese who escaped, threw two bombs at the Capitol Cinema, under the control of the Japanese, from the German concession and destroyed the building. There were no casualties, although the second bomb exploded near a lobby as the panic-stricken audience was streaming out. A third bomb slightly damaged a cinema in the French concession. The Shanghai correspondent of The Times (London) says that the Japanese naval authorities announce a merciless campaign against Chinese armed junks because of an attack on the Japanese patrol vessel on the Kwantung coast, which is interpreted as an extension to the sea of guerrilla warfare. A Japanese naval transport was wrecked without casualties on Amherst Rock, at the mouth of .the Yangtse Kiang. The transport Ondo is In distress in the Saddle Islands. In a message from London on June 3 it was stated that according to the Shanghai correspondent of The Times the Japanese were fighting in the and Kaifeng areas in an endeavour to rectify their line preparatory to a general advance upon the Ptking-Hankow railway. JAPANESE OCCUPY KAIFENG Received June 7. 1 a.m. TOKIO, June 6. The Domei News Agency Haims that the Japanese have occupied Kaifeng. CANTON BOMBINGS JAPANESE REPLY TO PROTEST Received June 6. 10.20 p.m. TOKIO, June 6. Tiie Foreign Office spokesman, Mr Kawai. commenting on the British Ambassadors’ urgent protest against the Japanese bombing of civilian areas and thickly populated centres, vigorously denied the charge of indiscriminate bombing. He said that Canton was dotted with military anti-aircraft stations and contained moreover the biggest depot for the import of munitions, necessitating the the bombings which, however, might sometimes affect adjacent places. He reiterates that Japan would not welcome any intervention whatsoever while mediation depended on its nature.