In a raid on Ichang in western Hupeh on Sunday, Japanese naval planes blew up several godowns near the city and on the opposite bank of the river, the headquarters of the Japanese China Sea Fleet announced in a communique yesterday afternoon.
Naval aircraft operating in South China bombed a Chinese gunboat west of Chaoching in western Kwangtung, the statement said.
'A fuel boat and a 400 tons gunboat in the same area were bombed and badly damaged, the communique stated.
A correspondent at yesterday press conference pointed out that the U.S.S. Oahu would proceed shortly up the Yangtze as an American relief ship. In spite of the fact that the U.SS. Luzon was bringing to Shanghai American businessmen from Hankow he had learned that replacements for these men with Hankow hongs would not be permitted to travel in the Oahu. He understood that the Japanese authorities had barred them. The spokesmen requested him to investigate again and ascertain if it were not the American authorities who had forbed their travel.
It was asked if a Japanese permit would be necessary for travel on the Oahu, to which it was replied that the question was not of transport, but rather of going into Japanese occupied territory.
Questioned if any applications for} permission to proceed to Hankow had been refused, the spokesman stated that no applications had been made.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.