17 SEPTEMBER 1937, Page 10

Members of the British Community at Shanghai anticipate that it

will not be long before the Japanese capture the city. No one can foretell what the subsequent chapters in the drama now unfolding will be. There is said to be growing dissension in Korea and Manchukuo. As I watched the lurid glow of burning buildings on the sky-line last night during the attack I wondered whether Japan can shoulder these vast new obligations. And what of the two great English-speaking nations, will they indefinitely sit supinely by while Japan gradually absorbs the Celestial Empire ? And China—what of her ? Will external pressure, perhaps, provide the impetus for creating unity, hitherto lacking, among her tens of millions ?