CHINESE HARD PRESSED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1938, Page 8

CHINESE HARD PRESSED

JAPANESE ATTACK ON LUNG HAI RAILWAY

Powerful Drive on Hsuchow

ARMIES IN NORTH AND SOUTH JOIN HANDS

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) (Recd This Day, 1 p.m.)

LONDON, May 15. The British United Press correspondent at Shanghai says four Japanese armies, comprising sixteen mechanised columns, are participating in a final drive on Hsuchow, when General Li Tsung-Jen, one of China’s best strategists, is reported to have fled by air, leaving half of his army of 400 000 men, whom he led into Hsuchow last week. German advisers planned and supervised the Chinese retreat, which the Chinese deny is a rout, declaring that the most important part of their equipment is being concentrated at Kaifeng, while 200,000 men remain at Hsuchow, to sell their lives dearly in a rearguard action. Meanwhile the Japanese armies of North and South China have junctioned to form a single force, able to change direction at will, instead of fighting on separate fronts.