China Discounts Loss Of Main Southern Port
| SHANGHAI, NOV. 17, 1939
JAPANESE occupation of the port of Pakhoi on China's southern coast will not drastically affect free China trade, observers here believe. Japan's move in landing a force Nov. 15 near the port, and then fighting its way into the city, has been anticipated for several weeks, following Japanese penetration of the Gulf of Tonkin, and establishment of a naval base at Walchow Island.
Realizing that Pakhoi was vulnerable to [naval gunfire], Chinese troops had destroyed the highway leading to the port, dynamited bridges, removed harbor markings, and evacuated about half the city's population.
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