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Show S00CH0W RAZED -BY-AIHAIDERS SHANGHAI. Nov. IS (INS) "Paradise Under Heaven" Soo-chow, Soo-chow, beautiful city of 500.000 today was wiped out by destruction from heaven. In the greatest raid of the war, big Japanese aerial squadrons dropped more than 700 incendiary and explosive bombs on the ancient center of Chinese culture within the last 24 hours, Nanking charged. Reduction of Soochow to a flaming flam-ing ruin helped open the way for Japan's army drive toward Nanking, Nan-king, now Nippon's avowed objective. objec-tive. Japan's infantry and artillery meanwhile routed the Chinese on their northern flank, while a new drive was started in Shantung to bring that province into Japan's Borth China sphere. Warned by daily air raids and a formal Japanese ultimatum, more than half of Soochow's population fled, but it was believed some 200,-000 200,-000 remained when the city was reduced to ruins, and the death toll must have been enormous. Founded in 484 and once a Chinese Chi-nese dynastic capital, Soochow was its beauty won it the nme of "Paradise "Par-adise Under Heaven." All Americans left the city last week, after they had labored for months caring for the sick and wounded in mission hospitals. They had vainly asked, through Ambassador Ambas-sador Nelson Johnson, that a safety xone be created in Soochow for foreigners and the wounded. China meanwhile rushed reinforcements rein-forcements to the front between Shanghai and Nanking in a desperate des-perate attempt to halt the speedy Japanese advance. Farther south on the Soochow front, the Japanese occupied Quintan Quin-tan and 200 Japanese motor-driven junks entered the lakes east of Soochow. bearing troops for a flanking flank-ing attack there. A heavy exodus from Nanking ! already under way, with steamers and buses crowded to capacity, but government officials so far are remaining. re-maining. Continuing their north China advance ad-vance toward the Yellow river, the Japanese army occupied Chiyang, In Shantung, and Tamingfu, southern south-ern Hopei. The Japanese are now only 15 miles north of the Shantung capital. capi-tal. Tainanfu. Japanese commanders comman-ders in Peiping still held out the hope that General Han Fu-chu. governor gov-ernor of Shantung, would surrender and permit peaceful occupation of his capital. |