general assault upon the town walls was ordered at 8.15 o'clock in the morning, Bitter fighting imme~ Giately developed at the southern into, and by 10, o'clock in the morning the southern corner was Japanese hands, field dispatches Fresh Japanese troops then poured over the wall into the town below, where the Chinese offered resistance from every house, Phe column attacking the town ts extremely mobile, having occupied Weichikow and Watzekow, 30_Ikn to the south-west of Siaohsien, last night.
The highway along which the column is driving towards Hsuchow has been badly damaged by the retreating, Chinese, the reports assert, Eh ese Reeapture Cities Hankow, May 10.
The Chinese military spokesman suld today. that in Shansi province the Chinese forces had recaptured 34 cities, previously occupied by the Japanese, and that, between March 7 to May 10, the Chinese in Shanst had "inflicted Japanese casualties totalling 27,780 killed and wounded."
After two months of hard Aight ing in the Shansi mountains, the spokesman declared, the Chinese forces had finally succeded in driv ing out the Japanese and, as soon as' the province was entirely cleared of Japanese troops, China would use Shansi as their' base for a drive either eastward, towards the north-feast line in the' direction of the Pel-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.