Evening star., 1942-08-13
Jap Transport Fleet
Reported Sighted
In Tonkjn Gulf
10000 Troops Believed
On Board; Origin and
Destination Unknown
tie Associated Press.

CHUNGKING. Aug. 13.-An
Army spokesman said today that
an intelligence report has been
received saying japanese trans
ports carrying more than 10000
troops were sighted in the Gulf
of Tonkin on August 7.
He said there was no indication
however. where they came from OF
where they were going.
,Southernmost China. Thailand
and French Indo-China lie from
north to south around the coast
of the Gulf of Tonkin. Haiphong,
Indo-Chinese port on the Gulf ,
of Tonkin, was bombed last Sun
day by United States planes based
in China.
If the japanese transports
were southbound, as would be
reasonable, they might be taking
reinforcements into Thailand or
Japanese bases in French Indo-
China for possible new offensives
IN Southern Asia, perhaps head
ing toward Burma and the In
dian border.)
Formosa Raid Unconfirmed.
There has been nc substantiation
OF reports heard here yesterday that
Allied warplanes had bombed For
mosa, Japanese troop concentration
station across the Gulf of Tonkin
from Northern French Indo- China.
Both Chinese and foreign quarters
said they had no knowledge of how
the report started.
The spokesman said the Japanese
had conscripted Chinese labor to
broaden highways in Western
Hupeh Province and that this was
taken as an omen Of contemplated
Japanese military activity in that
region along the Upper Yangtze
River.
Another report, he said, told OF
sc, 900 japanese troops moved north
ward recently through Pengpu, in
AnhWei Province, on the Tentsin-
Pukow Railroad. This, however,
was taken with grain of salt, he
said, since it told neither from what
zones the troops were supposed to
have been drawn nor where they
were being shifted.
Withdraw From Huwan.
A military spokesman disclosed
that in land operations, Chinese
troops withdrew from Huwan.
which they entered a week earlier.
Throughout the fight for the town
IL miles south of the central Kiang-
81 base of Linchwan Fuchow), part
of the Japanese garrison was said
to have held on in a Catholic mis-
sion grounds despite repeated at
tacks.
The spokesman said the Chinese
still were pressing their assault on
however. He estimated
the invaders had massed 10000
troops there and said this was 40
per cent of their entire strength in
Province.
He said the Chinese repulsed two
japanese drives west and south
from Hungyanga in Chekiang Prov
ince. Also reported repulsed was a
seven column japanese drive south
toward Fukien Province from
in Eastern Kiangsi
Province, and Kiangshan, just across
the frontier in Chekiang Province.
Anniversary Of Battle.
China marked today rs the fifth
of the start of the battle
of Shanghai with the assurance of
the army newspaper Tia Kunk Pao
that the nation is determined to
counterattack at an early date" and
regain the enemy held city.
If China had a large air force in
1887, the official Central Daily News
commented, she could have held
Shanghai much longer and through
repeated bombings of Japan proper
the war might have developed along
entirely different lines"
Chlna's five-year lack of air
power has begun to change with the
arrival OF United States forces and
the newspaper expressed hope that
thy would grow strong enough to
drive japanese planes from China's
skies ana hit the enemy in his own