Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-12-09
INTERNATIONAL
NEWS REVIEW
Continued from Page ~
Spanish Situation.

|
but little about the interest of other
nations in the Spanish civil war dur
ing the last few weeks appears to
show two things: One is that, as
far as can be guessed, secret con-
ferenceS are in progreSS-SomehoW
and somewhere-for the purpose of
terminating that conflict; the other
that recently not single non-Span-
ish vessel has been reported sunk
in the Mediterranean. Apparently,
strong forces are silently at work.
AS for the civil war itself-it is
still in progress, and General Fran
cisco Francois aviatorS have again
been bombarding villages in the vi
cinity of Madrid, but an interesting
fact is provided in the news that
he has been delaying his long-her-
aided offensive against the capital
Many reports coincide in the opinion
that he is ready for the supreme on
slaught, but, so far, nothing has
happened beyond what may be called
routine fighting.
While general world opinion leans
toward the supposition that the Span
ish rebels ultimately will emerge vic
| torious, the legitimist government is
not yet ready to subscribe to that
prediction.
Far Eastern Picture.
It may be-or it may not-that
things are on the mend in Europe,
there is much to bear out that con-
lecture, either way you take it, but
there is still the disturbing fact that
in the conversations and negotiations
which have been going on recently,
there has been no mention of the
Russian Soviet republics. European
diplomats still seem to proceed from
the hypothesis that they can ignore
Moscow-and that, of course, cannot
be done; cannot be done as long as
the Moscow government has behind
| it the mightiest armed force of all
the powers.
And here the strange thing is that
while not much is being said about
Russia, the thought of that country
is in the minds of all the diplomats
| interested in adjusting the world
situation, for it is generally believed
| that should situation even more
precarious than the present arise in
China, Russia may step in.
The Soviets may not be as deeply
! interested in China as in the pos
sibility of finding Japanese sphere
of influence too uncomfortably close
to Siberia-and should such influ-
ence ever become real menace to far
eastern Russia, trouble is likely to
come.
Closer to Marking.
What the situation in China will
be a few weeks hence, one cannot
predict with certainty. The prob
ability, as it looks at the present
moment, is that the Chinese in their
desperate defense of their country
will be defeated; their worst loss
to date was that of Shanghai, and
just now the invading japanese are
concentrating all their efficient en-
ergy on the task of capturing Nam
king, still the official capital of China
although the government has fled to
other cities. Ever closer the Japan
csc are pressing, and neutral OBJ
servers take it for granted that it
will be but a short time before Nam
king is in the hands of the Nipponese.
If that comes about, the war will
be practically over, for the japanese
have been steadily victorious in
northern China and have conquered
vast territories there. In fact, they
have been victorious everywhere in
China.
German Offer.
A few weeks ago the world was
startled by the announcement that
the German government had offered
to mediate between China and Japan.
Then, all of sudden, all talk about
this died out.
During the last few days it has
been revived, for it is reliably said
that the German ambassador to
China, DR.. Oscar Trautmann, has had
conferences with Field Marshal Chi
ang Kai-shek, at Hankow, and that
he has offered China peace on con-
dition that the northern provinces,
now held by the Japanese, secede
from China proper and constitute
a semi-autonomous republic governed
by Chinese under the japanese super
vision; also, Trautmann limited that
it would be necessary to increase the
japanese concessions in Shanghai,
and that the customs law of China
be revised for the benefit of japanese
export trade.
Since Germany is bound to Japan
by a friendship treaty-just one year
old-and since, then, it may not be
assumed that the German govern
ment could approach the problem