Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1938. THE FAR EASTERN WAR.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1938. THE FAR EASTERN WAR.

NEWS of the last few days suggests that the Japanese are on the point of covering another important stage in their invasion of China, by driving m and perhaps in part enveloping the armies which for l nontlia ? aa withstood them in positions covering the Lung Hai Raihuay —the five hundred mile line which runs wes * wai yJ. the Yellow Sea and affords access to a great extent o interior country, including some of the richest a J ri e^ tara areas in China. The latest news available at time or writing indicates that little more is immediately m than the proportion of their forces the Chinese are I ike j to be able to extricate from the territories ior h and south of the Lung Hai Railway in. face of the conceited onset of the advancing Japanese.

It is less remarkable that the Chinese should nowbe involved in perils and difficulties on the ext ende battlefields on which they have been defending the Lun Hai Railway than that the Japanese have not befoie non gained the lipper hand. At the beginning of last Februa iy it was reported that the Japanese had advanced ox ei thre routes to the capture of Pengpu, a key city of Suchow, the strategic junction point of the Tientsi lPukow (Nanking) and Lung Ha i raihvays Instead however, of being able to make speedy and profitable use of what appeared to be an important strategic gain, the Japanese have since occupied some fifteen weeks m breaking the resistance of the Chinese armies covering Suchow.

In the fact that the struggle has been maintained so long and obstinately, there is evidence, not only>otthe valour and tenacity of the Chinese troops, but of ability with which they have been organised and led. It may be supposed, too, that no such remarkable stand by the Chinese armies would have been possible had t ey been receiving fairly plentiful supplies of other war material. Though they are menaced now by the tragedy of defeat and possible disaster, these armies have emphasised anew and impressively the magnitude of the task by which Japan is faced m her attempt to subjugate China.

There hafe been of late some boldly confident talk by Japanese spokesmen—a statement that the next attack probably will be on Hankow and more to a similar e ® ec *- It seems likely, however, that Japan is stlll ( ai f f , having broken organised resistance m China and is taithei still from effectively occupying that country. At best, from the standpoint of the invaders, the prospect opened is that of a possibly extended penes of campaigns like that which has been in progress for a good many months in the territories north and south of the Lung Hai Raihx ay. Even if organised military resistance on a large scale were broken completely, it would remain to defend enormously extended lines of communication against guerilla attacks and to overcome the passive resistance of the Chinese people.

Always, too, there is the factor of Russia. The Soviet dictator Stalin appears to have beaten down all internal opposition and is credited with projects o± Asiatic expansion. Although there has long been a heavy massn g of Soviet and Japanese troops on either-side of the Amin frontier, it has been demonstrated that neither party is in any hurry to force the issue. It seems altogether improbable, however, that Stalin would remain inactive while Japan made rapid progress towards the complete subjugation of China. Circumstantial reports declare that Russia is supplying China with planes and other wax material on a considerable scale. The continuance of these supplies may enable the Chinese to persist m a determined and formidable resistance even if avenues oi supply by way of Hong Kong and Canton are cut off. It seems very possible that Stalin and his associates may be content to leave matters broadly in their present shape only so long as they are of opinion that Japan is paying a greater price than she can afford to pay for the extension of her invasion of China.