Japan•at Shanghai The degree of Tokyo's exultation over the Japanese
advance at Shanghai is a measure of the anxiety which the prolonged and gallant resistance of the Chinese—hopelessly outgunned, and checking their enemies by a prodigal and unhesitating sacrifice of their lives—had occasioned. The extent of the Japanese success has yet to be determined. In actual territory it amounts to little, and all reports agree that the Chinese withdrew in good order at night, without the knowledge of the Japanese, to a shorter line which is completely out of range of the guns of the Japanese ships in the river. Their losses have been immense, but their reserves are inexhaustible, and Japan also has lost heavily in men whom she can much less easily replace. If the Chinese prove able to stand on their new positions Japan will have gained relatively little, but the loss of two railway lines, which the Japanese have cut, may prove an important factor. Of operations in the north little has been heard apart from some vague Japanese claims ; battles in the mountains of Shansi give great advantages to the defenders. The Note in which Tokyo declines the invitation to attend the Nine Power Conference is a cynical and defiant document, designed to demonstrate that Japan is acting solely in self-defence, and concluding with the observation that " as soon as the Powers understand the true intentions of Japan and take suitable steps to compel the Nanking Government to reconsider their attitude and policy, then, and only then, a way will have been paved for their co-operation with Japan respecting the settlement of the present conflict."
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