Hankow, June 7.
Chinese press dispatches received here from the front today confirm yesterday's reports of the breaking of the Yellow River dykes in the vicinity of Kaifeng, capital of Honan, "Owing to the heavy downpour of the past few days," the reports state, "the level of the Yellow River is rising, and the swollen waters have swept over the dykes north-west of Lanfeng, with the result that the countryside has been flooded."
The general opinion' in Chinese circles here is that if the overflow reaches a large scale, hundreds of square miles of countryside in north Honan and west Shantung will be flooded, "probably involving the Japanese mechanized artillery in very great difficulties,"
The countryside along both banks of the Yellow River in Honan and Shantung has been deserted by the Chinese peasantry owing to military operations, so the civilian casualties resulting from the flood are not expected to be large—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.