The Defeatist: Propayands An Attempt to Prepare for Fengtien's Expected Wit thdrawal in Two Wa:
Peking, May 19, Sapanese movements ju China are!
more the one all-absorbing topic of conversation in the Leys Quarter. A few days ago interest n affair besan to flag. courage of the Feng-focussed attention upon then and their plans and the day before yesterday there was the eonest interest in the fighting below Fuotingfu. Yesterday the news of Ankuochun successes ina counter tuck below Vaoting fell upon ilifferent ears and one hear! nothing but speculation—upoa! Japan's plans. Yesterday morning word went round that Japanese aeroplane hangars were to be erected
and children' were being evacuated the glacis, that Japanese women} xo that the Japanese male population could be brought into the Legation to help in the defence of the Quarter needed, and from the telegrams delayed by: the breaking of the Taku. Chefoo cable it was learned that 000 Japanese troops were coming to North China, of whick force about 1,200 would! probably be stationed in For some days past, moreover. there has been much " speculation upon the motive behind the gloomy' picture of Chang 's prospects which the Japanese Legation and press were micro assiduously spreading. While the defeatists in the Generalissimo's headquarters seemced to he gaining the upper hand andi the whole community expected a Fengtien withdrawal to Manchuria, the Japanese reports of military movements were not only the fullest but the most reliable. Then when the entire Fengtien organization decided that the retreat, as a political demonstration, had failed in its purpose and that there was no reason why the Ankuochun should not stand and fight, every Japanese medium of publicity suddenly sent forth a veritable eruption of dismal foreboding and the weakness of the northern military position was exaggerated in a way that was:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.