Word: cantons
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Twenty-four hours later the Japanese Government launched a brand new major assault upon Chinese Independence in general and the Chinese Generalissimo in particular. In South China waters, on the night after Independence Day, wide-eyed captains of coastal steamers raced for Canton (see map, p. 17) with the news that scores of Japanese naval vessels were massed off Bias Bay, famed hideout of Chinese pirates, only 20 miles from the British Crown colony of Hong Kong...
...Troops began landing at 4:30 a.m. The next morning and under a rain of fire, throughout the day some 40,000 Japanese, their horses, supplies and heavy guns, were ferried ashore where they split into two columns. One headed north for Waichow, whence a highway leads into Canton, and by week's end its artillery and bombers had the city in flames. The other struck westward to cut the rail line between Canton and Hong Kong. Beating off scattered Chinese resistance, it reached the line, blew up the tracks at a point only 15 miles north of Hong...
...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...
...months'-old war this line has been bombed in 1,300 places. Speedy repair work has held the periods of service interruptions to a minimum, and last week trains were still running, albeit irregularly. Most remarkable testimony to Chinese ingenuity was that the 680-mile run from Canton to Hankow has been shortened to 36 hours instead of the old 45-hour schedule. Moreover, in spite of war, and because of heavy war supply shipment, the line made money; net profit last fiscal year...
...Canton-Hankow Railway is China's life line not only as the chief munitions route but also as a means of exporting tea. Only recently have the Japanese armies approached the tea fields of China. Hankow has become the chief tea trading centre of China and thanks to the railway's continued operation Hong Kong has replaced Shanghai as chief tea port. Tea exports from China last year increased by 4% over 1936, amounted to 406,572 quintals (89,632,863 pounds), valued at over $30,000,000. This year the Soviet Union has contracted...