Peiping, Apr. 20.
Engagements between Chinese and Japanese troops near Kaifeng, in north-eastern Honan, concerning which contradictory reports have been circulated in the past few days, ended on Tuesday with the Japanese occupation of Chungkou, on the new bed of the Yellow River, according to reports received here from Japanese sources, The main theatre of military operations at present, it is stated, is about 35 miles south of Kaifeng.
Chinese claims of military successes on the Honan and Shansi fronts are declared by Japanese spokesmen to be highly tendentious and made with the object of influencing favourably negotiations of the Chungking government with the democratic powers and the Soviet Union.
All Chinese attempts to advance, Japanese sources declare, have ended in total failure and heavy losses, also in conflicts between pro-Soviet Chinese troops and Nationalist troops.—Trans-Ocean,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.