JAPANESE ADVANCE ON WHOLE FRONT

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 50, 22 November 1937, Page 7

JAPANESE ADVANCE ON WHOLE FRONT

-Presi Assn.-

Fate of Nanking in the Balance THE CRUCIAL TEST

fBj Telwaph-

-Copyright.)

(Received 22, 2.50 p.m.) TOKIO, Nov. 21. The Japanese forces to the "westward and north-westward are completing prepaTatiohs for the advance on Nanking, •which the Chinese, though not unanim•usly, declareith'ey will defend to the laBt man. A Japanese naval and military force landed at.Fushan, on the eastern Yangtse kiang, ?md eBtablished cOmmunications hehind the lines linking np Fushan, Changshu and Soochow/ on the Bhanghai-Nanking eanal railway. They then. advanced npon Wusih, thereby threatening the flank of the Chinese' ■econdary defences barrxng the road to Nanking, 100 miles away. The Chinese are retreating in disorder from Soochow, where, tne Japanese assert, they bayoneted 1000 and took prisoner 2000The Chinese Air Force has ceased to exist as a fighting unit, and there is therefore nothingtoprevent the Japanese planes from continuously bombing and machine-gunning the fugitives. The victOio are now advancing on . ne entire front. This is based on a rough semi-circle connehting Hucjhowfu, Sooehow and Fushan. The intention is crucially to test tho Chinese Hindenburg Line connecting Wusih- and Klangyin. The fate of Nanking hinges upon that. _