Evening star., 1939-12-24

me QuLIOT OF t1tS QfttcLe IS an
American neUSpdperman Uho re-
Gently returned to this country
after fUe years OF neUs Work in
China.
Displaced from the front pages Of the
worlds press by the dramatic events in
Europe and on the sea, the Sino-
japanese War today continues with un-
diminished-if npublicized-severity.
The thirtieth month of the war finds
million japanese troops locked in deadly
combat with three times that many SOL
diers and guerrillas over front stretch
ing half across Asia.
New legions are being added daily to
the 100000 civilians driven from their
homes and field by the tide of war. New
towns and villages are going up in smoke
and dust. And perhaps even as these
lines are being written school. fac
tory or foreign mission lost somewhere
in the vastness of China is being bombed
by japanese airmen on one of their
routine morning raids.
What is happening in China today
can best be visualized by drawing a huge
triangle, its sides linking Peiping in the
north with Canton in the south and
Shanghai in the east.
The triangle is known under many
names. To patriotic Chinese it is lost
territory" which must be recovered from
the alien invader. To the Japanese it
is the prize of two and half years of
sanguinary hostilities, territorial re-
turn on an imperial investment of thou
sands Of lives and billions Of yen. The
triangle Is theater Of war, the locale
of an economic revolution and prob
lem in politics.
Free China" Busy.
Within the triangle lies the area over
run by the japanese forces. Outside
west Of the line linking Peiping with
Canton-is free China" where the
Chinese government has its headquar-
ters, where new industry is being built
up to provide the material base of re-
sistance, and where new armies are
being trained and equipped for future
battles.
major, vastly dissimilar. fronts. with
greatly dissimilar weapons. The forces
operating along the sides of the triangle
are charged with the task of checking
attacks from Free China" and employ
mainly military methods. Here occa-
sional victories. such as the capture of
Manning, are interlarded with reverses
as disastrous as the unsuccessful drive
on burned-out Changsha in September
or the fiasco in the barren mountains of
Shansi last month.
On the whole, the Japanese high COM
mand in the past IA months has been
content with remaining relatively pas
sive on this front Beyond the triangle
lies rugged country in which the Japa-
nese cannot use their mechanical equip
ment, responsible for their victories in
the past Further advance westward
must be pushed with small arms, in the
use Of which the Chinese excel, on q
terrain favoring the defender.
The other front is spread within the
triangle. Here the goal Of the invading
armies is to crush the guerrillas, to
pacify the populace and to launch, as
soon as possible, the exploitation Of the
economic resources Of the area.
The Vital Front.
OF necessity, the gun and the bayonet
are complemented here by economic
pressure, political intrigue and intensive
propaganda. It is on this front-and
not along the sides of the triangle-that
Japan will either win or lose the war.
Japanese strategy on this all-important
front thus far has been as simple as it
has been unsuccessful. When Nippon's
armies poured into China In 1887. their
frst move was to occupy the major