July 22.
Two armies are assembling China's Tom Tiddler's ground, Hopel. Province, where, since 1933, the Chlnese have claimed authority and the Japanese have virtually exercised it, In the immediate neighbourhood of Tientsin and Peiping, where the present tension Is greatest, there are between sixty and. seventy thousand, Chinese froos. Of these only about twenty thousand have so far shown. themselves to be anti-apanese, These men belong to the 37th Divi sion, attached to the 29th Army. Between them and Tientsin are men of the 38th Division, under the command of General Chang. Tau-chung. the mayor of Tientsin, who have, ex: cept for one brief exception of a skirmish at Lanfeng on the Pelping-Tientsin Railway, so far proved Indifferent to the dispute.
Two divisions of Central Govern ment troops have already arrived at ist] Paotingty, the capital of Hope! prov= ince, according to the latest reliable reports. They are the vanguard of a Central Government advance, which This shows few signs of being pushed any further, There are at. least three more Chinese divisions along the Pel-ping-Henkow Rallv.oy, but they are still in Honan, and the rate of the! advance gives'no justifeation to the Japanese fears, feeely expressed by. their military commanders, that they can be of any influence on the situation for some weeks to come, That.
to say, if their advance is continued,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.