Hankow, Mar. 4.
Taking advantage of the transfer of the main body of Japanese troops from Honan to Shansi, the Chinese forces at Chengchow are ofeially stated to have crossed the Yellow River and to have launched a counter-offensive on the Peiping-Hankow Railway, At the same time, a Chinese column operating from a point east of the railway, is said to have made its way via Hwahslen, near the eastern terminus of the 93-miles long aokow-Chinghua Railway, to Sin-siang and Weihwei, both on the Peiping-Hankow line, and to have recaptured these towns. The recapture, it is stated, was possible because the two towns were manned only by small garrisons.
Sinsiang, which is roughly forty miles north of Chengchow, is at the junction of the Peiping-Hankow and Taokow-Chinghua Railways, while Weihwei, which witnessed some of the bitterest fighting of Japanes drive in Honan before it originally fell, is fifteen miles further.
The. Japanese troops in possession of Wenhsien, a town in the wedge-shaped area formed by the southern border of Shansi and the Yellow River, have moved to the north bank of the great waterway. Using observation balloons to direct their fire, the Japanese are subjecting the Chinese positions on the south bank to heavy shelling. Their fire is concentrated mainly on the villages of Chaokou and Hsiaoyi, which are situated near Kunghsien, on the Lunghai Railway. Kunghsien itself is thirty miles east of Loyang. determined. Eleven bodies were recovered, Two boys enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps reached a telephone and informed relatives of the death of two persons at Camp Baldy. They said that an undetermined number were missing and that several of the 200 guests were suffering from shock and exposure.
At a meeting of relief workers, the City Attorney, Mr. Lloyd Aldrich, described the Los Angeles floods as the greatest catastrophe. He estimated that it would cost U.S.$3,000,000 and nine months work to clear away the debris and at least a year to replace bridges washed out by swollen streams,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.