WAR IN CHINA: Race

Slowly, relentlessly, the Japanese army pushed on last week toward Hankow, with two columns racing to be the first to cut off the Chinese capital’s railroad communications. One column pierced to within 30 miles of Sinyang, on the Peking-Hankow line 120 miles north of Hankow. A second edged to within 60 miles of Sienning, on the Hankow-Canton Railway 70 miles south of the capital. The main Japanese force, supported by the navy, threatened heavily fortified Tienchiachen, in the narrow gorges of the Yangtze River 100 miles below Hankow. At week’s end Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s best troops withstood a second heavy Japanese assault at this point. The capture of Tienchiachen would almost certainly cause Hankow’s fall in short order.