MENACE TO CANTON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 October 1938, Page 7

MENACE TO CANTON

JAPANESE DEMAND SURRENDER OF CITY PROGRAMME IN PACIFIC TALK OF WARNING BRITAIN AND FRANCE By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, October 16. The Hong Kong correspondent of “The Times” says that the Japanese are reported to have issued an ultimatum demanding the surrender of Canton forthwith under the penalty of ruthless bombing. Meanwhile the Chinese claim that they have recaptured Tamshui, killing 5000 Japanese. Six hundred refugees have reached Hong Kong, where the authorities have been empowered to requisition food supplies. Prices have doubled in the last two days. Formost has become a hive of activity as the focal base of the Japanese operations in South China. It accommodates 120,000 troops, military and naval. Spokesmen declare that Japan’s programme will be relentlessly carried out in China, but that there is no intention to take Hong Kong or Singapore or to advance southward in the Pacific. “Japan must consider a warning to Britain and France against continued Assistance to China,” it was added. Foreign authorities have been advised to warn their nationals against travelling in the Canton and Swatow zones in view of the impending military operations. The Japanese have arranged for eyewitnesses to give nationwide broadcasts of the progress of the Japanese pincer movements against Hankow.