Last Positional Fighting Will Be in Hupeh Where Forty Divisions Will Meet Invaders TPHE last great positional' fg!
Hankow, Feb. 18. of the present war, before which the battle of Shanghai and the prospective struggle for the Lunghai Railway are expected to pale, will be fought in Hupeh, possibly near Hankow, in the opinion of competent observers here, General Chiang Kai-shek, Commander-Chief of China's armed forces, hopes to put at least forty divisions into the field for this battle, and is confident that it will be Japan's Waterloo.
A stream of all the most modern weapons of war—heavy guns, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, machine-guns and automatic rifles—has been steadily flowing into China from abroad. "These weapons are being distributed to the "new army"—reorganized divisions and well-trained new ones emerging from the drill-ground.
the Chinese are defeated in the great battle, the Government and the 'Army will' withdraw from Hankow to the mountains In the north-west Seizure, distinctly different from the and. the. south-west, Aghting on the "olping-Hankow Rallfronts, which he re-'The Chinese. will' then try to hold! the. seven provinces of Szechuen, of defence.
Yunnan, Kweichow, Kwangs!, Shen-'The Chinese forces at Hsuchowfu_ i, Kansu and -Chinghal. will aifack when necessary and, if Guerilla Operations Certain important positions are lost, There will be no more. big posi-Will make every effort to recover tional warfare, but China's them. al stance, it is. predicted, will be continued unabated in the form of Railway fronts, however, forees losing a position wilt retire to {guerilla operations from one end of the next line of defence. the country to the other, Chinese observers here do not Importance of Hotel minimize the importance of the Hofei, or Luchowfu, a town on the battle for Hsuchowfu, but they northern shore of Lake Chao, in ard it-and the other battles. to Central Anhwei, forms @ natural base be fought for the Lunghai Railway for. the Chinese to direct their tus only. curtain-raisers to. the great, military operations on the Lunghai decisive clash to follow, Railway front, and is consequently With the arrival of bombers and regarded as being even more importpurmult planes from Russia, England, ant, from the military point of view, France and America, and with new thank even Hsuchow!a.
Dilote being turned out from various From Hofel"the Chinese are able Aviation schools, the Chinese _air to attack the Japanese: forces on the force 1s growing stronger every day, southern section of the Tientsin~ land is expected to make a serious Pukow Railway, or strike northeastward (0. support the Chinese Bid before long to challenge Japan's defenders at Hsuchowfu. acknowledged supremacy in the alt.
"Furthermore, unlike Hsuchowfu, Gen, Chiang Tours which {s located in the centre of a General "Chiang Kai-shek, who plain, Hotel is protected on the east since he relinquished the post of by. a'serles of hills, and is connected President of the Executive Yuan has ity by small roads with points east een able to devote all his time to 'This will hamper the movements of the war, Is constantly, visiting the Japanese mechanized units and will id. the Chinese considerably. different' fronts.
Before the fall of Nanking, the Chi-He made an exceptionally import-nese commanders at different fronts ut tour accompanied by the Kwang-fought their own battles, without any si_watlord, General Pat Chung-hsi, ce-ordinated plan. For example, when once a bitter foe, but now a close the Japanese were using all their friend inn common cause. available troops to break through the At Linfeng, in South Shansi, they Chinese defences at Shanghai, Gen-conferred with Chu Teh, Mal Tse-eral Han Fu-chu, recently executed tung, Peng Tel-hwai and other com-for dereliction of duty, sat tight in manders of the 8th Route (ex-Com-Shantung doing nothing on the Tien-munist) Army. tsin-Pukow Railway front.
"At Kaifeng, capital of Honan, they Trouble Remedied pored over maps and discussed the campaign with General Li Tsung-General Chiang Kal-shek believes: Jere Commander-in-Chief " of the that this complete lack of co-ordina Chinese forees on the Tientsin-Pution has been remedied, and that Railway, and a host of other things will be different in the battle for the Lunghai Railway, commanders, including Chen Chien, General Pai Chung-list's forces in Liu Shih, Sung Cheh-yuan and Shang eastern Anhwei and Chekiang are constantly attacking the Japanese Important Decisions Reached positions in the vicinity of Wuhu and Several important decisions were Hangchow to prevent them from reached, but though these have not shifting all their troops to the Tien-eon disclosed, this much is known: tsin-Pukow Railway front. the Chinese tactics have been changed, Large numbers of well-organized fund there has been on important mobile columns are harassing the reshufMing of troops.
Japanese rear and their lines of com~ General "Sung Cheh-yuan's troops, munication and. supplies. who have been stationed on Meanwhile, according to the Chi. Peiping-Hnnkow Railway, were orde nese press, "the Chinese forces fed to the vicinity of Kweiteh and Shansi will shortly Taunch a large-Tanfeng, on the Lunghai Railway, and scale offensive against the Japanese wil have to rest the Japanese troops troops in that province—Reuter.
they advance westward rom Moral of Chinese Good Heuchowtu.
Seven divisions of Eh Hankow, Feb. 18. "The morale of the Chinese forces is ood," stated a foreign traveller who arrived here to-day from Hsuchow, wud-of Sun Tung-hsuan and Tsao having travelled by train on the in, are holding the sector south-Lunghai Railway and the Peiping-west of Tsining, and are under orders Hankow Railway, via Chengehor prevent the Japanese from cutting The situation was not so serious at the Lunghi! Railway west of Kaifeng as had been reported, the traveller stated. There were "only Troops commanded by Sun Lien-300 Japanese troops at present at chung and Pang Ping-hsun are hold-Fengchiu, near the north bank of the ug positions along the Tlentsin-Yellow River, 18 miles north of Kal-Pukow Railway north of Hsuchowfu. feng, while "the River itself was "The 1st Army Corps under General strongly defended on both the north-'Hu Tsung-nun, considered the Mest fern and southern banks, at Kaifeng, Aghting unit In the Central Govern-by troops under General Shang Cheng, ment army, was used to defend Peng. former Governor of Honan province.
jon the southern section of the Following the retreat of the troops jen tsin-Pukow Railway. This Corps under Generals Wan Fu-lin and Sung has been transferred to the rear for Cheh-yuan, from Changteh to Sin-reorganization into six divisions for hsiang, the traveller declared, the use in the "last great battle." arrival of Central Government troops "Three Kwangsi and two Szechuen at the Peiping-Hankow Railway front divisions are being moved to positions had brought considerable improve-south of Hsuchowfu. ment in the situation. there.
War of Seizure: The foreigner said that he had While very great importance visited the Shanghai front five times, attached by General vniang Kai-shek fand he found that the morale of the to the bathe for Hsuchowty, the main Chinese troops on the Tsinpu Line fighung strength of the Chinese army front was "much higher than at Will not be concentrated there.
Shanghal."—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.