Capital of Shansi Threatened

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 35, 4 November 1937, Page 5

Capital of Shansi Threatened

-Presa Assn.-

JAPANESE ADVANCE , Chinese Reported to be in, Full Retreat TRENCHES MINED

(Br TeleBraph-

-Copyright.J

(Keceived 4, 2.30 p.m.) PEIPING, Nov. 3. . The Japanese are rapidly converging on Taiyuanfu, the capital of JShausi, xfom two sides after severe hand-to-nand lightiag and miniag of the Chinese irenches. They claim that the Chinese' nre in full retreat and that the fall of tne city is imminent. This will malce Japan master of the fourth provincial capital since the start of the campoigu. The Chinese admit that the position in tShansi is grave. newspapers throughoufc China urgo negotiations for "a neutral zone at Shanghai, The report of the evacUatiou of ffantao is without foundation. The Japanese captured the snow-clad mounAiin pass of Hainkowchen. The tiefenders. resistea stubbornly, but the mvadere sacrificed their lives in blasting supposedly impregnable positions, from which they finally drove tho Chinese in full flight, leaving 30,000 casualties. Dispatches from Taiyuanfu admit that the Japanese are within 40 miles of the city. There will be severe losses lf reinforcements do not arrive quickly. Accordmg to reports from HanKing, two crack divisious of the Chinese Eighth Ainiy re-occupied the Niangtze Pass, the eastern gateway into tho Whan&i pfoviuce, ilriviug back the Japanese. But Poiping says that this has beep more tiiau counterbalanced by the Japapese capture of tihuyaiig, which threatens the capital city, Taiyuanfu. Taiyuaufn is only 40 miles oif, and is unprotected by inteEvening' defeilcesi ' There have been 200,000 Chinese pourhd into Shansi in the last two months. An earlier report from Shanghai stated that an agreement had been reached between the French, Chinese and japanese under which the Chinese troops would be withdrawn from Nantao with a view to obviating a Japanei*s attack against Nantao, which 'would have imperilled the French Concession. Foreign military observers say that the Chinese forces in the Soochow Creek area consist only of a first line, with a few reserves. The main body of the Chinese Army has established & line north-west of the city. According to a Tokio message, the Domei News Agency^S representative at Shanghai reports that auti-aircraft batteries, apparently in the British defence sector, fired on a Japanese naval plane flying over tio Tokoda cotton xnillt which is Japanese property but is m tho hands of the Chinese. The plane reached its base safely, though bullets hit the wings. ma i'i — n —■ i — r — il — i n — 'f 1 "111