Hankow, Feb. 5.
Fighting across the banks of the Hwai or Misty River, which intersects the Tientsin-Pukow Railway north of Pengpu, continued to-day as the Japanese tried to demolish the Chinese defence works on the north here with artillery fire preparatory o continuing their advance.
The Chinese are replying 4g the attack, though they are using buch less ammunition than their adversaries.
The Chinese troops on this sector Lelong to the command of General Vu Hsueh-chung. the newly-appointed Commander-in-chief of the 3rd Group Army, which includes the reorganized forces of the late General Han Fu-thu. General Vu was formerly a wbordinate of Marshal Chang Hsueh-
An official spokesman said: "The Japanese may have tried to instigate bandits and traitors to create trouble, but we are confident that their intrigues will never succeed, as the people of Kwangtung have always been patriotic, and would never allow themselves to be utilized by the enemy."
The happenings of the past few days, he added, should bear testi-many to this, and there need be no anxiety' as a result of the various [rumours which have been circulated.
"We state". the spokesman continued, "that the 39,000,000 people of Kwangtung, influenced by the teachings of our late leader, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and the traditional spirit of the Revolution, will give their wholehearted support to the Generalissimo's policy of prolonged resistance so long as Japan still adheres to her policy of aggression, and so long as Chinese territory at present occupied by the Japanese is not recovered.
"We are not afraid of any threat, and are prepared to make the supreme sacrifice to defend our national sovereignty and integrity.
"At present peace and order are prevailing in Canton, as usual, and this alone should dispel the rumours of trouble here,"
Meanwhile a Japanese column operating across country is advancing on Hwaiyuan, a town eight miles south-west of Pengpu, where there are a number of missionaries, most of them Americin.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.