Tokyo, Oct. 4.
"Japanese forces have dealt a crushing blow. to 14 of the 42 divisions of Chinese troops which they have engaged in' northern. Hunan," says a communique issued In Hankow today by the headquarters of the dppanese Expedi-Monary Forces in Central. China These 14 divisions, It says, include: six divisions of Chinese ' Central Government troops. Seven other divisions, it continues, have suffered heavy damage.
'The Chinese are said to have! 25,000 dead, while 2,500) Chinese soldiers are' reported to have been {taken prisoner.
'The "Japanese, the communique concludes, have also captured 100 mountain' guns, 30° Howitzer guns, heavy guns and 20 Czech machine: day and night march, dispersed. army' of 3,000 composed of detachments of the 13th, 135th and 18th Divisions ina. 10-hour engagement Thursday morning in the hills west of the captured base.
More than 500 dead were left by the fleeing Chinese—Domel.
Japanese "Round-up" Campaign Tokyo, Oct, Last. stages of a vast "round-up" campaign against 10 Chinese divisions were being fought today by Japanese forces in northwestern Kiangst near the borders of Hunan and Hupeh provinces, field dispatches reaching here today said. Launching operations in a cold rain yesterday morning, the Japanese forces operat ing the Siu River valley drove disorganized Chinese troops deep into a U-shaped pocket formed by other Japanese units driving down from the Kiuehiuling mountains in the north and from the walled town of Slushut In the south, the dispatches said.
"The cul-de-sac into which the Chi. ese troops were driven, the reports added, was closed by nightfall when Japanese forces from Wuning cut the Wuning-Changsha highway about 4 kilometres southwest of Siushul. This operation completed the encirelement of the Chinese troops tinder Gen, Wang Ling-chih and Gen. Fan Sung-{u which were distributed in the Siu River valley,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.