Hankow, June 22. the situation is said to be critical, the Chinese military spokes-is going on at present in the vicinity of Taihu, where man declared today.
Taihu is on the north bank of the Yangtze near the Hupeh-Anhwei border, north of Matung, where the Chinese' boom is situated.
Continuing their "relentless drive" westward along the north bank of the Yangtze, the spokesman went on, the Japanese, after" the occupation of Tsienshan, launched a "vigorous assault" on Chinese positions at Taihu, from which, the spokesman declared, the Japanese hope to advance southward towards Susung, southwest of Tsienshan, for a drive into Hupeh province via Huangmei.
The breathing space afforded by the Yellow River foods to the Chinese armies is being feverishly used by the Chinese to reorganize and take up positions to defend Hankow from the north-west, in addition to the defences already taken against an attack along the Yangtze.
The new Chinese line how stated to have been formed is more or less a straight line running diagonally across Honan province from Kunghsien, 35 miles west of Chengchow, on the Lunghai at the northernmost extremity, through Hsucheng, on the Peiping-Hankow Railway 60 miles south of Chengchow, to Kushih, in the corner where south Honan joins Anhwei at the southernmost extremity.
This, which will be the first line of defence, is under the command of General Tang En-po, with headquarters at Hsucheng. Behind this, a second line has been prepared running diagonally in a south-easterly direction across the Peiping-Hankow Railway at Sinyang.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.