WAR NEWS

Evening Star, Issue 24287, 31 August 1942, Page 4

WAR NEWS

HEW CHINESE OFFENSIVE FORTY MILES NORTH OF CANTON JAPANESE FORGES IN RETREAT CHUNGKING, August 29. Following the capture of Chuhsien and Lishui, the Chinese have launched a vigorous new offensive 40 miles north of Canton along the Canton-Hankow railway, reports the ‘ Central News.’ The Chinese have already captured Pakong, Kweitouling, Nang Channgau, and are pursuing the Japanese, who are still retreating. The Chinese have reoccupied Lieutang, Chuhsien, and Tsindien, and have steadily widened the section of the Chekiang-Kiangsi railway previously recovered. The operations have brought the Chinese closer to Nanchang. It is estimated that the Japanese withdrawals in Chekiang and Kiangsi have already embraced over 10,000 square miles, which the Japanese have systematically looted. The inhabitants are suffering great hardships. It is believed that the airfields at Chuhsein and Lishui will require several months to repair, as the Japanese destroyed all the installations. The Tokio official radio admitted that Japanese forces are abandoning the entire field of operations in Chekiang and Kiangsi, “ having completely mastered the enemy.” American bombers on Friday made a third raid! on Japanese bases which could be used for. the enemy invasion of Yunnan province. They bombed the Hanoi-Lokai railway, also ammunition and fuel dumps in Indo-China. The Americans bombed Haipong on August 29 and Lashio on August 27 in an attempt to break up Japanese concentrations and destroy invasion supplies. An official review of the throe and a-half months’ campaign in Chekiang and Kiangsi discloses that the Japanese have suffered T 4,000 casualties in Kinwha and Lanchi. 18,000 at Chuhsien, and 8,000 at Shangjao. The present situation is as it was before the Japanese started their drive from Nanchang. DISASTROUS FLOOD MILLIONS OF CHINESE HOMELESS ■CHUNGKING, (Rec. 9.50 a.m.) August 30. The most disastrous flood for a century has. inundated 60,000 square miles in 21 towns in Japanese-held northern Anhwei province. Three thousand houses have collapsed, and Japanesecontrolled rail traffic to Tientsin has been severely crippled. Millions of Chinese are homeless, many dying of starvation and disease. The Chinese High Command reports that Chinese legions are storming the suburbs of Nanchang, the main Japanese base in Kiangsi province. U.S. ANTI-INFLATION PLANS (Rec. 8 a.m.) WASHINGTON. August 28. 'At his Press conference President Roosevelt said that the wage stabilisation in the new anti-inflation programme would be flexible rather than a rigid freezing of wages and salaries. A similar flexibility would be observed in stabilising farm prices. President Roosevelt said he thought farm prices and wages should be kept within a fixed ratio to living costs.