10 JUNE 1938, Page 2

Japan's Advance The Japanese are now driving westward along the

Lunghai railway in an attempt to strike at the railway from Peking to Hankow. On Monday Kaifeng was captured ; the Chinese are expected to resist the advance to their utmost, but they are also prepared for a general retreat in order to save their connexions with Hankow, which, in preparation for an imminent attack, is being evacuated by civilians. These successes, however, do not satisfy the new Government in Tokyo, which appears to understand by a " more vigorous prosecution of the war " the merciless bombing of civilians. Canton was bombed twice on Monday, with the loss of 1,500 lives, and three times on Tuesday. Unaffected by the horror caused all over the world by such massacres, the Japanese promise that there is worse to come. The Chinese will need all their stoicism and their new-found unity to resist such barbarous attempts to break their morale. They may gain some confidence, however, from the five years " non- aggression " pact which, it is reported, has been signed with the U.S.S.R. The pact appears to provide for the supply of trained volunteers from the U.S.S.R. in return for oppor- tunities for increased Communist propaganda in China Russia's methods of penetrating China may yet prove more successful than those which Japan prefers.

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