Tokyo, Jan. 21.
The present situation of the hostili-fies in China was outlined by the Japanese War Minister, Lt.-Gen. Ero Ap, in a speech to Parliament today.
About 170,000 Chinese troops, he said, were now assembled west of the Peiping-Hankow Railway preparing guerilla warfare north of the Yangtze. South of the Yangtse there are about 200,000 troops in the area between is and Nanchang, mostly troops of the Chinese Ceneral Army.
General Chiang Kai-shek is endeavouring, he stated, to establish a connection with the Generals of the South-West. In South China there were about 200,000 Chinese troops in Kwangtung and about 50,000 in Kwangsi.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.