NO MAJOR BATTLE YET IN THE SHANGHAI ZONE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 187, 25 August 1937, Page 5

NO MAJOR BATTLE YET IN THE SHANGHAI ZONE

- - % Heavy Japanese Bombardment of Woosung (Eeceived 25, 12.50 p.m.) SHANGHAI, Aug. 24. Despite exchanges of bombing raids, anti-aircraft fire from the Japanese warships and the landing of a certain number of Japanese reinforcements, nothing decisive has -occurred on the Slianghai front. Though the Japanese claim to have repulsed sporadic attacks, it cannot yet be said that a major battle has taken placc. The Chinese have not yielded ground to any appreciable extent. Their stubborn resistance is preventing the Japanese regulars, though they are supported by naval guns, from penetrating their defensive lines. An ambitious Japanese onslaught in the north of the city has not progressed despite hours of fighting. Aid recently arrived. Reinforcements are reputed to aggregate 54,000. The Japanese this morning opened a general land, sea and air at'fack, especially on .Woosung. The Chinese forces stubbornly » resisted. / j The'fiercest fighting occurred at the Settlement on the boundary, the salient of wjjich the Japanese have strongly fortified and hope to smash through. The British United Press correspondent states that a small force of Japanese were bayonetted on the beach at Liuho, soutk of the mouth of the Whangpoo. The Japanese claim another success at Woosung and are at present advancing on the Chapei power station. . The Chinese assert that they wiped out a Japafiese division landing at Woosung last night. The Idzumo led 'off at dawn in a bombardment of Pootung, where immense fires were soon raging in the Chinese warehouses. The Chinese artillery from Kiangwan started fresh fircs in the ricli Japanese business quarter of the Settlement. Admiral Hasegawa announced that no Japanese guns were firing at the time of the disaster at Sincere's department storc. A Japanese destroyer is reported to have been sunk and a gunboat disabled by Chinese projectiles during yesterday 's Woosung landing, which the Japanese claim they largely prevented. The Japanese deny that any of their warships are disabled. A Tientsin message says foreign observers estimate that tliere are between 80,000 and 100,000 Japanese troops in North China. According to the Nichi Shimbun, the Japanese War Minister, General Sugiyama, told a conference of parties that Japan would seek the speediest declsion and would not play into China 's hands with a protracted war.