Japan's Next Steps Such blunders may have a serious effect
on military opera- tions, for it is possible that the conditions Japan may be asked to observe in the future will impede her in the conduct of the war. To avoid coming into serious conflict with the British at Hong-kong, it is probable that the Japanese advance into South China, and her attack on Canton, will be made by land and not by sea ; after Peking and Nanking, Canton is the third great capital of China, and the very heart of the nationalist movement. This dangerous operation is imposed on Japan by the determination of Chiang Kai-shek to continue the war, if necessary for years ; it is reported that political control has now been vested in a Council at Hankow, headed by Chiang, and containing two of the Communist leaders. The war has transformed Chiang from the enemy into the ally of the Communists ; thus so far at least as Japan's avowed aims are concerned her aggression in China has created what it was designed to prevent—the growth of Communist influence. And the danger of this incursion into a third theatre of war is increased by the precariousness of her hold in North China ; in West Hopei and Shansi she is reported to be definitely on the defensive. On Sunday the Chinese replied to a threat to cross the Yellow River by blowing up the Japanese mills at Tsingtao, valued at £15,000,000. Their will to resist appears to be unbroken and can be only increased by the reports of the indiscriminate shootings and executions, the looting and the reign of terror, which followed the Japanese entry into Nanking.
