BRISK BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 May 1941, Page 6

BRISK BATTLES

IN PROGRESS IN NORTH CHINA SEVERAL TOWNS CAPTURED BY JAPANESE. ONE RETAKEN AFTER STREET FIGHTING. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 11. The Chungking correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that heavy fighting has broken out in northern China. Ten thousand Japanese troops have begun an offensive on the border of the Honan and Hupeh provinces west of the PekingHankow railway, and brisk battles are progressing along an irregular line of 90 miles. The Chinese, the correspondent says, retook one town after street fighting in which half of the Japanese garrison was wiped out. The Chinese admit that the Japanese have captured several towns on the border of Shansi and Honan.

In Tokio the Foreign Office organ, the "Japan Times and Advertiser.” declares that peace will) China is impossible till the United Slates so wills. General Chiang Kai-shek, the paper says, redoubled his resistance against Japan from the moment when the United States indicated that she wanted China to resist. Thus. Japan’s only possible policy was to continue to support the Nanking Government. JAPANESE CLAIM VICTORY IN SOUTH-WEST SHANSI. (Received This Day, 9.35 a.m.) SHANGHAI, May 12. The Japanese military authorities have asserted that their forces are closing in on Chinese troops in southwest Shansi province, after a battle costing the Chinese 15,010 dead and 8,000 captured.