June 3.
Though the campaign against the Northern coalition has now been carried on for some weel the amount of information available as to the trend of fighting is meagre in the extreme, What is issued by cither side in the nature of communiques reads 80 very badly when compared with the map, that an observer is driven to one or the other of two conclusions. If both have been telling the truth all along they must by now have broken through each other's fronts and are now busily attacking each other in the rear, which, of course is absurd. 'Or, in' the alternative, the "decisive" one gagements, forecast with such empessement never materialize ed either to the extent originally anticipated or subsequently claimed. If then, in the absence of completer information, the guess is hazarded that neither side has succeeded in damaging the other to any great extent it is probably not very far wrong, and is just as good a guess as any other in the circumstances, It is, however, possible to belie that Nanking is making a serious effort to capture Chengchow, and that a battle is raging in' vicinity of Hsuchang with that end in view. It is the logical outcome of the present situation, for dominance of the junction of the Peking-Hankow and the Lung-hai railways by Nanking would have the effect of relieve ing the pressure which seems to be increasing on the Shantung front, and about which the foreign community in Tainan is now so manifestly anxious, If that is about afl that can be said of the war situation, mi definite factors in other' parts of the country tend to make this campaign one of the most serious... that China has faced in the short of her republic, Foreign observers as well as Chinese view the steady march of the Red elements from the south, and the increase of their in: fluence in districts which they have not already reached, with the gravest alarm. ' The "remnant" Tronsides, who ap: pear to have been exterminated with a most persistent regularity in the past few months, are still in being. We do not suppose that they can be nearly as strong and as well equipped as when they started on their southern venture over ayeer ago, but the news of the few weeks indicates that they are a singularly important factor in the situatia: as providing the nucleus around which the northward march of the Communists is centred, There is throughout Kiangsi a large number of Red bands, apparently acting independently, who seem to have the major Portion of the province under their control, while within comparatively easy reach of Hankow, in Hupeh, there are imposing gangs who quite recently, it will be remembered, came as close to the river port as Simiakow.. All these are independent factors, Dut if the stories of the expenditure of Soviet money are to be believed, if tales of the presence of white officers in their midst are not entirely idle, there is every possibility of complete liaison between them, and an eventual coalescing which may seriously embarrass the Nanking Government, Indeed Nanking is fighting the most dramatic war of her existence, and it is chiefly one for time. Whether the Southern communists and the Northern coalition are allies in fact, does not matter. Their simultaneous appearance on the field, creates a situation not unlike that in the early days of the Great War, when Germany was obliged to (Continued on Page 374.)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.