Hankow, Mar. 9.
A delayed message received here from Chengchow states that a detachment of 900 Japanese troops with twenty tanks succeeded in crossing the Yellow River, under cover of a heavy artillery barrage, on March 5.
The crossing was effected at Szeshui, to the north-west of Chengchow and between Chengchow and Kunghsien.
The Chinese forces defending the south bank of the Yellow River blew up the dykes and flooded the area where the Japanese troops had landed. The Chinese claim that this nauvre succeeded in drowning the majority @ the Japanese troops and rendering§the tanks useless.
It is not yWj certain whether the Japanese still have a foothold south of the river. The news so far received here merely states that at the lime the message was sent off from Chengchow the remnants of the Japanese who had not been drowned were being surrounded in the neighbouring "hills nearby.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.