Naval bombers meanwhile attacked Chinese troops north of Tehan while assisting infantry units, Picked aircraft were assigned to the special mission of destroying the Chinese transportation routes and carried out surprise raids on the Canton-Hankow and Pinghan lines.
They demolished or set on fire a large number of godowns and buildings attached to the stations and wrecked 30 to 50 freight cars loaded with munitions. Tracks were claimed to have been blasted apart at countless places.
Al the planes managed to get back io their bases although they encountered intense fire from antiaircraft batteries, the communique said.
Heavy damage was said to have been done to Chinese positions and communication facilities by large squadrons of bombers which carried out continuous raids on many places in Central China in ce-operation with infantry and the fleet advancing up the Yangtze, Freight cars and sections of track of the Pinghan and Canton-Hankow Hailways were demolished, this statement said.
British Diplomats For Chungking Hankow, Oct. 19.
A British diplomatic mission, in-eluding Mr, J. D. Greenway, Mr. C. M. Alport, and Maj. Scott, will leave here for Chungking at daylight tomorrow.
They will travel aboard the British gunboat Tern, which will contact the British gunboat Falcon probably at Shasi. The Falcon will take the members of the Embassy party for the remainder of the journey.
The Tern will return to Hankow immediately, while the Falcon will relieve the gunboat Gannet at Chungking. The Gannet, in turn, will relieve the Peterel at Ichang, and the Peterel will come down to Hankow.
This means that, during the emergency period in Hankow, the gunboats Gnat, Mantis, Tern and Peterel will be in port, while the Sandpiper will be at Changsha.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.