While there are a few who still abuse the Japanese, the great majority of foreign opinion here is that the Japanese had endured insults and outrages beyond the cap-city of any self-rey to endure longer; that the Japanese demands, while sharp and curt, were reasonable and perfectly capable of fulfilment if the Chinese army men had really desired peace: and that it is perfectly clear that the Japa ese, now that they have laid thei hands to the plough, will not look back until the furrow is well turn When the failure of negotiations resulted in a clash of arms the Japanese set themselves first to the tack of clearing the west and south suburbs of Nationalist troops, but a large umber, estimated at from four to six thousand retired within the city walls and opened fire on the Japanese from these elevations. On Tuesday, May 8, the complete rout of the troops outside was so manifest that the Japanese were able to attack the city also, which attack was in progress when the last train left on Wednesday morning.
From the vigour with which was being pushed, it was believed to have required no more than a day for its accomplishment.
Several Nationalist officers, Whampoa graduates, who found a few sympathetic cars into which they could pour their woes, are said to have burst into tears of helpless rage and disappointment over the debacle of their troops, "After this," they wept, "we can never hope to establish our National Government,"
Making duo allowance for ths hysteria of the moment, these young officers have revealed a great aval of truth about themselves and their cause, They had been living inn. Tittle heaven of: glory these last weeks; when they strutted into Kashing in their spanking new uniforms and demanded from some helpless ladies thnt they should o¢- cupy their houses as billets, they truly thought they were world-conquerors against whose power none could hope to prevail. When they rode on flat ears up through the regions abandoned by Chang Chung. chang's unpaid coolie-and-robber-soldiers they imagined themselves as von Mackensen's armies smashing through Rumania and Servia, Arrived at Tsinan, they were on the top of the world and the little Japanese forces there were just, many ants that could be brushed aside with a sweep of their hands, The Nationalist Chinese outnumbered the Japanese by ten to one and had many times that number close at hand, according to their own statements. Their surprise at what happened can only be compared to the feelings of the countryman who thought he was breaking open water-melon but found it was TTAN.T, bomb! The Nationalists did not break and run at the first dis play of Japanese force but in their ineffective and unorganized wa: tried to put up some sort of a sistance. But the Japanese went over them like a steam voller, smashing down everything in their way and dispersing those on the outskirts. These Nationalists for the first time in their lives tasted what a real war is like—and they evidenced no desire for a full meal of it,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.