Japanese troops attacking Sinyang, vital railway and highway junction in southern Honan, province, 210 kin. north of Hankow, launched a general offensive against the walls of the city at dawn on Monday, Domei dispatches received here yesterday said.
Following a three-pronged thrust from the east, northeast and south on Sunday, the Japanese vanguards reached the eastern walls of Sinyang by dusk on Sunday.
The outer defences of the city were reduced on Sunday, Chinese troops holding the elaborate system of trenches and concrete pifk boxes east of the city abandoning: their positions in disorder, the DorüWi reports claimed.
The defenders of the city, the dispatches alleged, appeared demoralized.
The Peiping-Hankow Railway Tine was cut by a Japanese vanguard at Liulin Station, 20 kin. south of Sinyang, on Thursday night, according to an eyewitness report received from a Domei correspondent yesterday.
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Moscow, Oct. 9.
Reviewing the war operations on *he Central front of China, "Izvestia" writes: "Under the present circumstances, the capture of the Wuhan district is beyond the strength of the Japanese aggressors, "This precisely explains the frequent transfer from the metropolis of the Japanese troops to fortify the Japanese army operating in Central China.
"The four-month battles' in the approaches of Hankow are the best proof that the Chinese army has grown into such a force h is capable to deal a crushing defeat to the' Japanese aggressors and clear the Chinese land from the latter"—
Tass,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.