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Show ' How Invaders Hope to Shut China's 'Back Door' j JAPANESE TROOPS ENTER NAfllllNGj IN DRIVE TO CUT CHINA LIFELINES TOKYO, Nov. 24 (AP) Domei, Japanese newi agency, re-. re-. ported that Japanese forces on a south China offensive aimed t severing Chungking's "back door" life lines, today occupied Kanning, Kwangsi provincial capital. H KHPNG5HQ (KUNMING) 3fl g.""0Tr v.. S "A l 0 .00 - MAP OF SOUTHERN CHINA EXPLAINS LATEST MOVES IN CONFLICT Lllcavy-arrow soarks caursa af Kiiapsasss aava Kanningi China' land tmiitrttwHh rr -1 I side world are shown by black lines Nannlng lies about 80 miles north of the point on the South China coast where a landing In force was started on November 15. The city blocked the route toward the central cen-tral Chinese government's highway and railway supply links with French Indo-China and British Burma. CMy ef ss.eoe It Is a city of about 68.000 population, popu-lation, a treaty port under an 1897 agreement between China and Great Britain. (Reports by way of Hongkong had told of stiff Chinese fesistance while Japanese planes loosed mixed s cargoes of bombs and propaganda pamphlets on the city. Two days ago the Japanese were reported to have reached the south bank of tht Pearl or West river, 10 miles from Nannlng.) The lifelines which Jspan Is determined de-termined to cut In her drive into southwestern China were made fast by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Kai-shek's government late In 1938. Xhay ware laid wh it appeared that the normal lines of communication communi-cation between China and the outside out-side world through the coastal ports of the east would be broken. Rail, Meter Highway The lifelines are a forked rail and motor highway leading from Chungking, seat of the Chinese government 900 airline miles west of Shanghai, to the outside world through China's two back doors, British Burma and French Indo-China. Indo-China. The Chinese In their grsdual retreat re-treat inland moved their capital successively from Nanking to Hankow Han-kow to Chungking; the Japanese, while pursuing Inland, at the same time spread their power north and south along the coast from Shanghai, Shang-hai, eventually closing every normal nor-mal means of communication between be-tween the Inland Chinese forces and the outside world. China's Answer Since the Chinese were cut off as well from much of their normal domestic sources of supply, a new contact with foreign sources became be-came necessary. The 1000-mile Chungking-to-Burma highway was China's answer to the problem. China already had an inland route to Kunming, capital of Yunnan, Yun-nan, her southwesternmost province. prov-ince. This was a narrow-gauge railway, French owned and completed com-pleted in 1904, from Hanoi, French Indo-China. . However, this . was a dead-end route until China built the motor highway, which has as its most important leg the 500-mile section ; south from Chungking through t Kweiyang to Kunming. This gave Chungking a direct connection to the sea through Hanoi. From Kunming the motor highway high-way forks west through Talifu and Yungchang and then over mountain ranges, some as high as 10,000 feet, to Lashio, in Burma, terminus of a British railway run- nlng through Mandalay to the sea at Rangoon. Thus since completion of the highway It has been possible for China to get supplies from either British Rangoon or French Hanoi and ship them Into the heart of the country at Chungking. The "lifeline" Immediately had a moral as well as material effect. To cut this line the Japanese forces would have to drive inland to Kunming over SO0 miles of difficult dif-ficult territory. The first part, through Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces, appears relatively easy. A minor supply route, a French rail line from Hanoi northeast to Nannlng, military headquarters of Kwangsi province, would be cut en route. This Una lies only 50 miles inland. |