FURTHER JAPANESE ACTION ANTICIPATED

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

FURTHER JAPANESE ACTION ANTICIPATED

fEeeeived 2, 8.45 a.m.)) NANKING, Aug. 1."It is absurd for Japan to talk of peace vvhile th^ Japanese occiiply Chinese territory/' declared the Chinese epokesman. ''Peace is only possible 3f the Japhnese return to the positions they occupied prior to the HiukiuehirtO incident and restore the^- .Chinese adini/iistration at Peiping and Tientsin." Ihe Chinese forces antlcipate that the present luil oniy presages iurther Japanese onensives and that they will probabiy drive towardB Paotingtu, where the Cfiinese 29th army is reorganising, The Chinese estimate that the Japanese attack on Tientsin caused 7oo civUian deaths and the destructiOfi of a tbousand houses and public Duiicungs, cmeny .due to aerial hoinDing. The corpses of human beiugs and animals are piled up in the streets in wmcn lootnig uas broken out. Hdhdreds of Chinese reiUgdes are attempting to enter the foreign cohcessioiis, which are tightening up the reguiations. The Japanese military spokesuian de atares that the bombing of the Alistnan concession was due'to an attempt to dislodee snipers. Japanese are erect' ifijf sandbags at the northern end of iliO intfcrjiatioiuil bhidge facing the barlitades of the I'Tench aeltlemeht, wherj

* Befions dispute haa arisen. The FrOnch consul, M. Charles Leppiser, is aecUSiiig the Japanese of cutting the communications of the French concession with the military base and also of firing a maehine-gun at a French detachment, wounding a sergeani whom the Japanese prevented from receiving medical attention for six hours, and inflicting various indignities. General Sung Cheh Xuan has tejpgi'aphed the Central Government, stating that he holda himself responsible f or Tne situation, tendering his resignation.and asking for punishment. The Government is not acceding to his vrishea and has urged hiin to continue to lead the troops against the Japanese. The Chinese have rejected the Japanese demand to evaeuate Swat-ow. Japanese planes bombea four Chinese troop trains and set fire to the Photingfu railway station. Japanese "couting planes repoft that 25 Chinese troop trains ar0 travelling north on the Hankow-Pekin and Tientein-Pukow railways. Ihe casdalty lists issued by the War Oiflce as a restilt of the hghting on Thursday and Friday indicate that 78 weire killed and 197 wounded. The NiChi Nichi declares that tho Government Is appropriating an additifuial £18,000,000 to de&l with the Chinese Situation. General Sugiyama, Minister of War, declares that Japan is making the fulleit preparations for the worst. The G' vernment is permittmg foreign vessels to participate in the coastal trade in order to alleviate the Shortage_ of cargo space due to operations in China.