"The recent statement of the Provisional Government on the futility of the Chinese resistance may be, think, a result of the Government's just indignation at the scorched earth' tactics of Chiang Kai-shek. I: was only natural that the Provisional Government, which is making a point at promoting the welfare of the Eh: nese people by establishing friendly relations with Japan, should be incensed by the actions of the Chinese troops, such as the breaching of the Yellow River dykes.
"Third Powers may bring out various kinds of devices for the benefit of themselves, but such actions do not constitute any obstruc-"tions to the fulfilment of the Japanese policies, "Our national defence being perfett, is it not enough for us to march straight toward the settlement of the present incident, assuming an independent attitude?
"The objective of our Army is to bring about the settlement of the incident at the earliest possible date. In order to obtain a perfect system of national mobilization with the complete understanding and cooperation of the people there may arise the necessity for taking broader action, depending on changes in the situation which may be witnessed hereafter.
"After all, the whole nation should be armed with the firm determination to bravely face protracted hostilities and be prepared for them so that the incident may be brought to an end as early as possible."—Domei.
Intensive activity by the Chinese Air Force on the Yangtze today resulted in two Japanese cruisers being set on fire, four Japanese planes at Anking being damaged, and Japanese warship concentrations at Tungliu being heavily bombed, according to Chinese reports. A' squadron of Chinese bombers, which took off this afternoon to bomb Japanese warships land troops concentrated in the vii ity of Tungliu and Chihteh, below Matang, were engaged by Japanese pursuit planes, according to Chinese reports. Nine Chinese pursuit planes immediately took off to engage the Japanese aircraft, it is stated.
All the Chinese planes were te-ported to have returned safely to their base, according to an announcement by Chinese Military Headquarters, which is still awaiting detailed reports of the aerial combat from the Chinese pilots, Cruisers Attacked Two Chihese bombers later attacked a couple of Japanese light cruisers on the Yangtze River in the vicinity of Tungliu, the reports continue. Dive-bombing over the Japanese warships, it is stated, the planes set them both ablaze, and when they returned later to carry out further attacks the cruisers were still blazing, the reports claim, A squadron of Chinese bombers raided the Japanese aerodrome at Anking again this afternoon, other Chinese reports state, and severely bombed four Japanese machines which were on the ground, When a squadron of Chinese bombers again sited Japanese warships in the vicinity of Tungliu this afternoon, their pilots observed that all the Japanese warships, instead of being concentrated in one place, were scattered wide apart along the river, it is stated. The Chinese bombers are said to have dropped a heavy load of bombs on the warships, but the results of the attack cannot yet be ascertained.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.