Yesterday morning, Major Naokata Utsunomiva, assistant military attache, told foreign press representatives that 55 Chinese divisions are now concentrated in the triangular area of Nanking, Hangchow and Shanghai. Because of heavy losses sustained by some Chinese units, he said, it was, at present, difficult to determine the number of Chinese effectives.
"In normal conditions, the number of divisions multiplied by 10,000 should give a fair estimate of the number of men, but, at present, this is not possible," he said.
While Chinese troops were not showing any signs of retreating from the Shanghai area, the officer declared "it is but a question of time that they will retreat to their second line of defence."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.