10 MARCH 1933, Page 2

Japan's Advance Japan's swift advance through Jehol is to all

intents and purposes over, and that province, like the three which admittedly form part of Manchuria, is now in full Japanese occupation, which will, of course, be regularized by the fiction that Jehol has become part of the independent sovereign State of Manchukuo. A declaration that the Japanese have no intention of pene- trating south of the Great Wall at present appears to be sincere, though air-bombing south of the Wall is in progress. The military operations have gone much as everyone supposed they would go, except that the advance has been swifter than was expected. The Chinese resistance amounted to next to nothing, thanks largely to the deadly effect of the Japanese aeroplanes and to the fact that the Chinese regular troops appear to have remained immobile in the passes (whence most of them have since been driven) separating Jehol from China proper. Japan's military achievement, of course, leaves the political situation unchanged, as Lord Lytton points out in an article on a later page. The embargo question is still urgent, and the British Government's action in taking the initiative should put this country in a position to exert pressure on other Powers at Geneva.

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