By all accounts the new Japanese offensive in the Yangtze has hitherto made slow progress and has failed to take any important strategic points, declares the "Daily Telegraph" in a leading article today, The Chinese, the newspaper continues, are putting up sta i and while double: forced to yield (superior Japanese equipment, they should be capable of holding the enemy for a considerable time in the big laic system surrounding Hankow, q The fall of Hankow, the. journal asserts, will doubtless be only a matter of time, but it is unlikely to bring the Japanese much mearer the end of the war, General Chiang Kalshek will merely retire still farther inland and be as elusive as ever and ws solidly supported by the sentiment of the nation, At Hankow, the "Daily Telegraph" declares, the Japanese will be over 600 miles from their base at ihai, and although they will be able to defend their line of communica, tions immediately on either side of the river, their hold on the rest of the country behind them will remain. precarious, True, the fall of Hankow, the paper adds, Will seriously interfere with China's access to outside munition supplies, but it is doubtful if these have been arriving on any important scale for some time past.
"Meanwhile, Japan is suffering heavy strain on her resources, and must anticipate a cumulative increase of strain during what promises to be a long war—Reuter, from the Lunghai Railway on September 4, and the other succeeded in cutting off the retreat of Chinese troops from Kushih at 5 o'clock on Monday by reaching a point four kilometres south-west of Kushih.
Naval aeroplanes commanded by Lieut.-Commander Hitoshi Tanamachi raided Sinyang on Monday and bombed ammunition dumps there, causing a big fire.
A Japanese detachment pushing west on the "shortest route to Hankow" from Anhwei was said to have occupied all outposts of Kwangtsi north of Wusueh and west of Hwang-mei by Monday afternoon.
One unit of the Japanese forces pursuing retreating Chinese along the Kiukiang-Nanchang Railway was reported to be engaged in severe clashes with the left wing of the Chinese defence line north of Tehan. Engagements at close quarters were being fought in the hills around Fuhungshan and Tashan, six kilometres southwest of Mahweiling.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.