GRIM STRUGGLE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 65, 9 December 1937, Page 5

GRIM STRUGGLE

Press Assn.-

Chinese Preparing FIGHT FOR NANKING Japanese Hope for Peaceful Surrender (COMMANDERS NEGOTIATE

(By Tel«rspli— 1

-Copyrigbt.)

(Beceived 9, 12.95 p.m.) NANKING, Dec. 8. Tfce Japanese will not enter Nanking "without a grim struggle. The Chinese f,?e feverlshly completing preparations to resxst the invaders to the last. Iiabour battalions are throwing np «*rthworks at each of the gates to the city and spreading wire entanglements and building gun einplacements. Pnrple Mountain, earlier reported to have been captnred by the J apanese, is itill in Chinese hands. The city echoes to the rumble of distant' gunfire, evidence of fierce fighting ia the outlying bills as the Japanese consolidate their positions on the fqnl-gj but the Japanese shock troops are pausing at the gates to the city, hesitating to launch the final attaek in the hope that the Chinese wiU capitulate before it is too late and believing that there ara now signs at Shanghai that the Chinese leaders are willing to talk peace. Some success is reported in the Japanese negoti'ations with GeneTal Tan Sheng Chi, commanding Nanking, for the surxender of the city and the 300,000 troops between Nanking and tWuhu. A Tokio message reports that the Japanese, for the first time in the campaign, crossed the north bank of the Yangtse river and seized Tsingkiang, opposite the Chinese forts at Kiangtin. They are' apparently trying to cut off the retreat of the Chinese fleeing to Nanking. The Japanese are now only 15 miiea from Wuhn. They have also occupied Chingkiang, which the Chinese bnrned down. _ , t According to a message from Peiping, the Japanese spokesman admits that the Chinese have recaptured Pingyao. The Tokio correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says "that the Japanese newspapers give prominence to the aituation in _ Shantung, where new defence Jines are being created. The opinion, is expressed that this will soon be the scene of major operations. .Japan hitherto has been anxious to avoid fighting there, because she has milliohs invested in the Tsingtao cotton mills and other industriea which the conflict mjght destroy. Af ter a strong British protest against the bombing of the British steamers Tuckwo and Tatung at Wuhu, the chief of stafE of the Japanese Commander-in-Chief waiteti on Admiral Little, British Commauder, and conveyed his personal aegrets. Britain will now lodge a bill of indemnity.