Peiping. Sept. 24.
Paotingíu, provincial capital of Hopei, was captured by the Japanese to-day after desperate fighting, according Xo Japanese claims.
The Chinese are said to be retreating to new defence lines near Shihchiachuang, at the junction of the Peiping-Hankow Railway and the Cheng-Tai line, which runs to Taiyuanfu, the capital of Shansi. The Japanese claim to have crossed the railway south of Paotingfu, and to be threatening another enveloping movement, Meanwhile, Japanese planes are said to be bombing the retreating Chinese.
The fall of Paotingfu occurred only after severe fighting. After o nightlong siege, a division of Chinese troops were still holding the city this morning but at 945 o'clock Japanese troops, fording a moat, stormed the section of the wall where a breach had been made by their artillery and occupied a corner of the city.
Locked in desperate hand-to-hand fighting, attackers and defenders swayed back and forth over shattered battlements before the Japanese consolidated their foothold, whence they began to fight their way inside the city in face of continued resistance.
Later, five Japanese units completely ' encircled Paotingfu, while other troops pushed on southwards after capturing the railway station outside the Wall.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.