NOT ENCIRCLED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1939, Page 5

NOT ENCIRCLED

CHINESE TROOPS IN HUPEH JAPANESE CLAIM RIDICULED. OPERATIONS IN MOUNTAIN COUNTRY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The following cablegram was received by the Chinese ConsulateGeneral from Chungking yesterday:--“The spokesman for the Military Affairs Commission said that the enemy’s statement that they surrounded over 20 divisions of Chinese troops at Fanchen and Shiangyang in central Hupeh province, and that these Chinest troops are about to be annihilated is ludicrous in the extreme. “In the first place, the territory in which the enemy claims to have surrounded our troops is a continuous range of mountains over a hundred kilometres from east to west 1 and over 170 kilometres from north to south. “With such a tremendous body of Chinese troops and such a wide expanse of mountainous territory strategically situated it is impossible for two or three Japanese divisions to complete an enveloping movement. Secondly, the enemy’s forces in Hupeh province are weak and have suffered heavy losses. “Over a thousand were killed in the enemy’s right wing; a whole division was killed on the centre, and heavy losses were sustained by the enemy on their left wing. The enemy’s claim that they surrounded our troops is contrary to fact.”