Evening star., 1937-10-15
Japan Marches On.

Presidents protest, Leagues lecture and
powers prepare to parley, but Japan
marches on With the fall of Shihchia-
chuang, vital railway junction IT'S miles
south of Peiping, her conquest of North
China is virtually complete. Hopei,
Chahar, Suiyuan, Shansi and Shan
tung Provinces are either actually cap
tured or occupied, or dominated at
strategic nerve centers in force that is
tantamount to possession.
Thus, within period of roundly three
months, the invaders legions have
planted the banners of the Rising Sun
over a territory of 100000 square miles,
containing 100000 900 Chinese. The con-
quered regions have more than three
times the area Of the principal island
of Japan and population slightly
larger Americans can visualize the ex-
tent of Nippons triumphant aggression
if they realize that there has come under
her sway-eXclusive of Manchukuo-a
slice" of China the combined size of
Pennsylvania, Delaware Maryland Vir-
ginia. West Virginia, the Carolinas,
Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois, with the District of
Columbia thrown in for good measure.
Manchukuo with its 30,0000O0 Chinese
now reported in seething revolt against
the island usurper, augments the Japa-
nese domain to an extent equivalent to
the combined area of France and Ger
many.
Thus, while Chang Kai Sheks tena
cious troops continue to offer stubborn
resistance around Shanghai, Shihchia-
chuang's capture opens the way to the
attainment of Japan's next objective
advance to the Yellow River $50 miles
south. Between Shanghai and the
enemy's front in the north lies Nam
king, which is, of course, one of his
primary goals. The seat of the Chinese
government on the Yangtze taken or
destroyed, the Japanese would be ex-
p6CJ6U 10 PRESS on 10 canton.
, To fight their way through Central
China to the extreme south across the
natural defenses afforded by the Yellow
River and the Yangtze, will be no childs
play against the sort of barriers, human
and material, that the flower of Tokios
forces has encountered at Shanghai.
But the tremendous progress the Japa-
nese army has made, since it launched
its thunderbolts outside Peiping in early
July, justifles the fear that sooner or
later its superior strength in the essen
tials of modern military power-artil-
lery. aircraft, transport and trained
leadership-will tell in the aggressor's
favor. Victory will cost him dearly,
in actual battle losses, economic strain
and crunlbling morale on the hard
pressed home front. Meantime, while
the League of Nations, the United States
and the nine-power treaty states ponder
over warless ways to curb Japan, it is
well to contemplate dispassionately what
she has already done in and to China
and to weigh in the light of cold real
tiles what is still possible, to preserve
that brave and beleaguered nation from
complete subjugation
Mr.. Matsuoka, president of the
South Manchuria Railway, who led
Japan's bolt from Geneva in 1882, says
his country is now engaged in "the final,
the knockout, decision-the once-for-
all house-cleaning" in China. He ex-
plains that Japan is employing neither
eight-ounce gloves for the knockout or
q vacuum sweeper for the cleansing
process. She has taken up her seal
pei" The West can hardly expect to
ward of a scalpel with soothing syrup.