SCATTERED FIGHTING

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 167, 2 August 1937, Page 7

SCATTERED FIGHTING

Tokio Reports "Situation i* Quiet" (Keceived 2, 8.45 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. .1. The Japanese bombing of Tient■in, especially the apparently granton destruction of schoCls and universities, has merely stiffened the Chinese Central Governmeut's detennitation to flght, says the Nanking correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. Marshal Chiahg Kai-shek, PresideriL of the Nanking Government, m a strougly-worded statcinent^ made it clear tliat- there vvas no prospect of a uegotiated settlement except on tffe basis of absolute respeCt for Chinese eovereignty in. North China. The Chinese military authorities ai« not reveaiifig their actual plans, but there is good reason to believe that the Nanking Governineiit is goiug ahead grmily with its preparations for what it -regards as a lit'e and death struggie, ind when it hits, it will hit hard. A message from Tokio says that the situation is reported to be quiet, apart from mopping-up operations. It is claimed that the main body of the Chinese 29th Afmy has beett driven back to the Y ungtung River. Keatterea bodies of Chinese troops, however, are still active. An artillery duel was reeuined at Tientsin whefi 800 Japanese residents attacked TungchoW. The Chinese troops who still remain in Peiping have been disarnied and the city is quiet; Japan it still cdnfideht of peafee. Official cirCles declare that cilarshal Chiaiig Kai-skek is tbo Inteiligent to desire a conflict. A inessage from Tientsin says that the Japanese heavily bOinbat'ded the ioriner Austrian Coneession distfict, scores of sheils falling in the thicklypopuiated nhtive atea. No reason was given for the bonlbardmOnt, A Japanese communiqile states that punitive ineasurea are to be cOncliided to-night, but whether a Settlement iB possible depends on the cessation of the flow of Chinese trbopS inte Hopei. It is believod that the japanese deinauds include the suppression of antiJapanese movements thrbugh China, •nd the demilitarisation of Hopei. ■ A paris, inessage saye that Dr. T. .■Wellington Koo fitated that China is earrying on ftottversatiohs with the sigEatones to the NinO-Power Treaty to aseertain their viewpoint. China, he sfays, bears the brunt of japanese Imperialism which Will affeet the balahce of power in the Pacific. Japan plans to move against Ktissia and, after that, South China, Malaya. and the Dutch EaBt Indies.