Evening star., 1945-06-04
Chinese Troops Drive Taft and Clio Leader
Toward Two Jap-H Held TangIe Over Tariff
Former u. ). Airfie|ds Cuts in Trade Bill
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
CHUNGKING, June 4.-The
Chinese drove last night within
% miles of strategic Liuchow
former American airbase and
Kwangsi Province rail junction
the high command announced
tonight.
In Human Province, the armies OF
Generalissimo Chang Kai-shek
closed within miles west of Shao-
yang Paoching), another former
base of the United States 14th Air
Force. A second column closed
within 6 miles northwest of the
town.
The Chinese "are continuing their
offensive" the communique added.
Road Center Captured.
The important road center of
Tsinkong (Chienkiang), 430 miles
southeast of Chungking, fell to the
Chinese.
The speed of the Chinese advance
toward Liuchow underlined reports
that the Japanese were Withdraw
ing steadily. 1t was predicted conf
IDENTIFY in Chungking that Liuchow,
which Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chen
naul's flyers abandoned last Novem-
Der 7, soon would revert to Chinese
control.
The high command said the Chi
nese had regained lines held in
Human Province on April 9, when
the Japanese started their abortive
drive westward toward the Ameri-
can airbase at Chihkiang, $50 miles
southeast of Chungking.
Japs Destroying Railroad.s
A Chinese field dispatch asserted
the japanese were moving large
quantities of war supplies north
ward along the Slang River toward
the Yangtze and destroying the
Canton-Hankow railroad between
the junction city of Hengyang, some
go miles southeast of Shaoyang
and Changsha, IS miles north of
Hengyang.
This would mean the japanese
were abandoning not only the cor
ridor to Indo-C -China-where the gap
is already $50 miles wide-but the
corridor between Hankow and Hong
Kong, which is still intact.
1t was believed in Chungking,
therefore, that the reoccupation of
Liuchow, Kweilin and Hengyang-
all former 14th Air Force bases
was now contingent only upon the
speed of the japanese withdrawal.
Tempo of the Chinese advance to-
ward Shaoyang, abandoned by the
14th Air Force last September,
seemed to indicate the Chinese had
enough strength to recapture the
base.
At the southern end of the wedge,
widened by the capture of Tsinkong
and driven into the enemy's over
land corridor from Korea to South
east Asia, Chinese troops reached
the suburbs of Szelo, % miles from
the Indo-China frontier.
Chinese troops were converging on
Liuchow. in two battle groups, one
force striking upward from Tsin-
kong, while another aimed its at
tack from the west, where the Chi
ense battled for possession of Ishan,
43 miles from Liuchow.
1t. Gen. Albert c. Wedemeyer's
headquarters, meanwhile, disclosed
that an American land force, the
Mars" task force which saw action
N Burma, had been in China for
several weeks. The unit is made up
Of the 475th Infantry Regiment and
the 124th Dismounted Cavalry Regi-
ment.
At the northern end OF the front,
the Chinese command said the jap
anese had made 30-mile gains In
what appeared to be diversionary
thrust westward from Siangsiang,
enemy stronghold so miles north of
Yengyang. This enemy drive ap-
peared to be designed to relieve the
Chinese nreSSllre m Shaoyapo