In North Shansi the Japanese exercise no control at all. The vast mountainous district north of Taiyuan fu is held by the remains of the Eighth Route Army (the former Red armies) who have their headquarters at the famous monastery of Wutaishan, Through this difficult country runs the other Japanese line of communication the motor road to Tatung on the Peiping-Suiyuan Railway. It is a very precarious route, and can only be done by convoys under heavy escort and accompanied by planes; and even then they have to fight their way through.
The truth is that the Japanese, believing that with the fall of Taiyuanfu all was over bar the shouting, withdrew a large portion of their forces from Shansi, partly back to Manchoukuo and partly to take part in the Shantung campaign. At the present time it is doubtful when ther they have more than 150,000 men north of the Yellow River. As, of course, the Japanese General Staff is not likely to have made any mistake or miscalculation, there must have been some deep military reason for this withdrawal of troops, because in recent weeks they have started bringing them back again.
The only portions of North China where the Japanese can be said to exercise any control at all are East Hopei, Chahar and Suiyuan. In the two former they have been establishing their hold for nearly two years already. These two areas are gar-risened chiefly by Manchoukuo troops and, as they border on Manchoukuo, are in any case easily accessible to Japanese reinforcements at any moment. Suiyuan is held by bodies of Mongol irregulars who are of doubtful loyalty and only likely to fall in with Japanese wishes, os long as it suits their own pur po: In the rest of North China the Japanese armies only hold tne railways and larger towns; beyond that chaos and anarchy reign complete, The whole of centra] and south Hopei is swarming with armed and desperate bands of men, partly disbanded soldiery and partly peasantry driven to desperation by the destruction of their homes and means of living. Into thi large area the Japanese can only penetrate in strong bodies, and then are liable to be ambushed unless escorted by scouting planes. Some days or so ago several of these bands crossed the Yungtingho northwards and raided various places along the Peiping-Tientsin Railway. They had to be dispersed by bombing rom the air. And afterwards, when the noise of air "Mopping up Communists"
Japanese spokesmen have been talking about a campaign "to mop up the Communists" in North Shans So far little progress seems to have been made in this direction. Nor is that strange in view of the very dificult ture of the country there. The monastery of Wutaishan itself lies in a valley 6,000 feet above the sea level, and, in order to reach it, passes rising to nine or even 10,000 feet have to be crossed, a sufficiently arduous task for an army at any time, but next to impossible in mid-winter.
Numerous parties of economic, sur-yoy and mining experts from Japan have passed through Peiping on their way to Shansi, to examine into the prospects of the economic development of that province. But after a very short and apparently profitless stay at Taiyuanfu have quickly returned home again. Indeed, if the whole of Shansi, north and south, is to be properly subjugated and ex-plaited, it is likely to require a second and very extensive campaign with even greater strength of force than employed in the first invasion of the province. It seems hardly likely that such a campaign will be attempted before the spring.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.