South of the Lunghat Railway, the spokesman continued, two strong Japanese columns were within ten kilometres of Linhaikwan, slowly pushing back the Chinese troops. The Chinese, he said, are operating in relatively small units, staging surprise raids upon Japanese garrisons in various towns. "One such raid, on Mingkuo, on March 25. was repulsed the Japanese, with severe losses for the attackers West of Lake Tai, the spokesman said the Japanese troops had ssu rounded Chinese units in the mountains, In one recent engagement a force of 3000 Chinese soldiers was defeated, 2,000 of the men being killed. The Japanese lost thirty men.
In another engagement, fought at point sixteen kilometres north of the first one, 160 Chinese soldiers were killed and much ammunition seized. 'The booty included one heavy' machine-gun and fifty rifles.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.