Japan's Advances The Japanese troops have now occupied - a triangle
of some five thousand miles in area south of the Great Wall. When the original advance from 'the rail :,-av zone in Manchuria was Made- in SepteMber, 19:P it was loudly proclaimed at Geneva and Tokyo that the troops would immediately be withdrawn as sool as local banditry had been suppressed. When the whole of Manchuria had been dominated by Japan there was to be another halt, but the occupation of Jehol promptly followed. That was accompanied by the most definite protestations that there would be no move south of the Wall. The most recent advance 'is therefore- fully in accordance with - expectations, and the' explanation that the operations are 'now completed will be read in the light of explanations in the past. Already there are rumours of an imminent occupation of Peking. Mean- while much more serious trouble looks like blowing up further north, where high-handed action by the Man- chukuo authorities against the Chinese Eastern Railway, control of which Russia has .hithertO shared with China, has resulted in a protest by Moscow to Japan. Japan, however, has replied conveniently– that the matter concerns Manchukuo, not Tokyo, though it is added signifi- cantly in another connexion that Manchukuo's enemies are Japan's.
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