'ALLOWING two days of incessant thunder from Japanese guns well north of Shanghai, the Chinese official spokesman yesterday afternoon announced the abandonment by the Chinese troops of the highway from Lotien to the north of Liuhang. The withdrawal was bitterly fought all the way for 1,000 metres, during which the Chinese claim to have inflicted severe casualties on the Japanese. The Japanese communique on the fighting late last night reported their troops within three kilometres of Tazang, a key position in the Chinese second line of defence.
It was a noisy day in Shanghai yesterday, H.LJ.M.S. Idzumo and her brood of destroyers adding, ig to the din with an intermittent bombardment of Pootung. Japanese army and navy bombers were active at intervals, bombs dropping on the fighting lines in Chapei and to the north, while other planes dived on Pootung "with machine-guns chattering, though bombs dropped there were few.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.