Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1938-08-11

siderable doubt that Japan will ever
succeed in taking Hankow; that doubt
increases in view of the-stiA remote
possibility that Soviet Russia allies
itself with China Should that come
to pass, Japan will be doomed, for
all sources agree that the Nipponese
are quite exhausted, militarily and
economically, and that certain stern
realities are limiting their ambitions.
OF course, no one can say what
the outcome of the Hankow often
sive will ultimately be, but the diff
ficulty with which Japan is carrying
on, and the upsetting of all strate-
gical plans point toward either cost
ly and tardy victory or disastrous
defeat
Along the EbrO.
Protracted, too, is the Spanish rebel
army's campaign for the purpose of
capturing Valencia from the legitim-
list government; for days intensive
fighting has been going on along the
Ebro river, and when the Francisco
Franco rebels are victorious at Viii
lalba de los ARGOS, they are defeated
by the government troops in the
Albarrancin sector So it goes-zig-
tagging as it has gone for a long
time already, and the rebels are still
far away from Valencia, still farther
away from their ultimate goal, Bar
celona, the temporary capital of Spain.
1t must not be lost sight of, either,
that after more than two years of
aggressive warfare they have not yet
captured Madrid.
1t is in Spain as it is in Japan:
The plans of aggreSSorS have gone
awry-at least, for the time being.
Japan thought that China could be
swallowed up in jiffy, and Franco
was sure that it would be a matter
of but a few weeks to destroy the
government. AS authors of military
plans the Japanese general staff and
General Franco have failed to cover
themselves with swift glory.
Czech Problems.
In Prague Viscount Walter Runci-
man, special envoy of the British
government, is carrying on negotia-
tons with the heads of the Czecho-
Slovakian government on one side,
and with Konrad Henlein, leader of
the Nazi Sudeten German minority
group on the other He is there not
to mediate but to ascertain what are
the minimum demands of Henlein and
the maximum concessions offered by
the government in regard to the
question of giving the German ele-
ment more satisfactory political
status.
Dispatches indicate that slow pro-
gress is being made, but also that
there is a possibility that the Prague
government, to some extent, will &C
commodate the British request for
extensive privileges granted to the
Sudeten Germans.
Great Britain has, in some meas
ure, allied itself with Germany in
this matter, for the sooner Germany
may be appeased, the brighter are
the prospects for a more genuine
friendship between London and Ber-
lin. And, if Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain achieves what he wants
to, through Runciman's mission
Prague must pay the price.
Bitterness.
In the midst of conferences, some
excitement was created the other
day when a couple of military Czecho-
Slovakian aviators crossed the line
into Germany. Sensitive Berlin i'm
mediately registered angry protest,
Prague backed down, apologizing
profusely, and explaining that the
filters had lost their way. To which
explanation the enraged German press
retorted that "this just goes to show,
what we have always maintained,
that the Czech airplanes are flown
by idiots!'
There are reports to the effect