Severe fighting has been resumed as the result of the offensive by the Chinese forces to relieve their position round Tazang. The triangle roughly formed by the Woosung Creek, the Shanghai-Nanking Railway as far as Nanziang and the Shanghai-Woosung Railway to its crossing of the Creek may be described as the area mainly affected by' these operations, the apex formed By the-jünction of the two railway lines resting on North Station and the Creek as the base running in a north-easterly direction from Nanziang to the Whangpoo. The present fighting may be regarded as the beginning of a new phase in the campaign round Shanghai. The Japanese have greatly developed their pressure on the Chinese positions with the apparent object of rendering North Station and the Kiangwan area untenable. The Japanese landings were effected toward the end of August at Woosung, Liuho and Lankankow on the right bank of the Yangtze. Soon after the beginning of September, despite heroic Chinese resistance, Paoshan fell into Japanese hands, This gave the invaders a firmer foothold and they extended their advance from Liuho and Lankankow with the result that, having made a further landing in Yangtszepoo on the left bank of the Whangpoo, they were able to force a Chinese retirement in the middle of September. Round the Civic Centre fierce fighting raged but eventually that point was captured and the Chinese forces withdrew to a line stretching from Lotien through Liuhang, then sharply eastward to Kiangwan, thence due south to the North Station. The next phase involved the Japanese in a move southward from Liuho affairist Lotien in conjunction with the advance of their troops from Woosung and Yangtszepoo. Lotien was strongly defended but by the beginning of October the Chinese announced their further withdrawal from the Lotien-Liuhang line but their continuance in position at Kiangwan. The new line ran through Kwangfu to Tazang then out to the Kiangwan salient and southward to North Station.
Thus the Japanese forces keeping a strong frontal pressure from Yangtszepoo on the Kiangwan-Chapei line are continuing to swing their right in a southerly direction with the apparent object of taking Tazang and so imperilling the Chinese forces posted in the Chapei area, In advancing from the north the Japanese crossed the Woosung Creek at Kaungkazah and have now occupied Mojauzah which brings them within five miles of the border of the International Settlement's Western District, The Chinese offensive is assumed to be designed to relieve this pressure either with the object of continuing to hold on to the Chapei and Kiangwan areas or in order to facilitate a withdrawal which, unless other more important considerations prevail, appears to be advisable in the light of the dangerous development of the Japanese right wing movement. If the Japanese were able to teke Tazang which lies due west of Kiangwan, their command of the narrow corridor whereby the Chinese forces can retire to the Kiating-Nanziang-Chenju line will expose their opponents to severe punishment and may easily involve actual encirclement of the large body of defenders in a now hardly pressed salient. In the last few days the Administration Building at North Station has been the object of strong Japanese attacks. It has heavily suffered. That indicates the ordeal through which the Chinese defence of that part of their line is now going. Much depends, of course, on the immediate result of the offensive which began on the night of Oct. 21. It will be interesting to observe the movements accruing therefrom on either side during the next few days. They will obviously show whether the next phase of the fighting here will be marked by a Chinese withdrawal or whether an intensification of the struggle in Kiangwan and Chapei is to be expected.
According to official reports the Chinese offensive radiated from Kwangfu and resulted in the gaining of ground between Kwangfu and Liuho. It seems to have been designed to check a Japanese advance which had threatened Kwangfu and also had developed southward toward Tazang. The conclusion is that the present activities of both sides are concentrated on securing definite results in the neighbourhood of Tazang; the fate of which must have an important bearing on immediate developments north of Shanghai. Despite a stubborn and heroic resistance the Japanese forces appear to have gradually established themselves in a position which cannot be favourable to continued Chinese retention of the Chapei area, strongly fortified though it be. Shanghailanders need no instruction on the severity of the fighting. Reverberations of the conflict have emphatically revealed the weight of munitions pressed into service by both sides during its course. The sickening noise of thudding explosions has told its tale and disturbed the sleep of all but the most inveterate abjurers of insomnia. It will be taken for granted that the Japanese cannot afford to leave undone anything which may ensure the success of their present movement, The delay in taking the initiative here, followed by further delay in dislodging the Chinese defenders who have withstood an appalling onslaught by superior artillery and have suffered casualties calculated to shake the morale of more seasoned troops, may be said to have whetted Japanese anxiety for concrete results. Whether that anxiety will be placated the events of the next few days perhaps will tell. Judging from previous results, it is possible that the Chinese Command may again deprive its enemy of the sweeter fruits of success by one of those strategic retirements which apparently Chinese units are most effective in unexpectedly staging.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.