Commencing on July 24 the Ebro battle in Spain is said now to be concluded with very little result either way. General Francos forces appear to be no nearer to Valencia than when the engagement opened, though the attempted progress has been held up at enormous cost to the Government's armies. The insurgents claim that they have delivered a shattering blow to the Catalan army, but there is at present nothing to show that the Government has received such hurt that the end of the conflict is in sight. Indeed on the other hand it seems fairly certain that the opponents in Spain are by now committed to another bitter winter campaign, and that the end of the struggle is not to be yet. That is chiefly for the reason that the Republicans are determined to fight to the bitter end, and that the insurgents will consent to no peace upon terms. The Republicans consequently fear that the rebels, should they ultimately succeed, will inflict fearful reprisals upon their opponents who seem to prefer to die in battle than face the firing squad after peace has been assured. That is one of the dreadful features of ideological wars,—the impossibility of effecting reconciliation,—and, as matters stand at the moment, only overwhelming defeat of one side or the other seems likely to bring peace to a sadly afüicted Spain. One interesting feature of the Ebro battle has been the enormous hammering the Government defences have endured at the hands of their enemies. Tons of shells and air bombs were rained upon the intricate system of concrete fortifications erected in the mountainous countryside, in which the Government troops found themselves comparatively safe from bombardments by artillery or from the air, and it was only after a very expensive lesson that the insurgents learned that the most effective weapon against man was man, and that infantry, armed with the bayonet and the hand grenade, could penetrate where artillery and aviation were helpless. From the experience of the last three-and-a-half months it would seem that the huge defence systems which have been and are being erected in Europe have all the impregnable qualities claimed for them. That appears to have been proved by the German experiments on the Czechoslovak fortifications, against which artillery and aeroplanes were sent, without the bombardments doing sufficient to show that these reinforced concrete structures are capable of easy destruction, What Happens Elsewhere In view of the denials which have been registered against descriptions of trading on the Yangtze, and the discrimination against third party neutrals, the following account of what is happening with regard to Canton, supplied by Domei, the Japanese news agency, should prove of interest:—
Canton, Nov. 20.
Carrying brief cases instead of guns, 59 members of a "civilian expeditionary force" of business men, bankers and consular employees following closely in the footsteps of Japanese troops arrived here to assist in the reconstruction of Canton.
Included in the party were 43 employees of banks and business concerns, the Canton branches of the Bank of Taiwan, Yokohama Specie Bank, Mitsui Bussan Kaisha and the Taiwan Transport and Express Ca.
Headed by Mr. Isotaro Okamoto, vice-chairman of the Japanese Residents' Association, they comprised the second vanguard unit of businessmen to arrive in the city since the Japanese occupation. Ten members of the party were consular employees.
They have taken up their duties in close cooperation with diplomatic and military authorities—Domei.
In this connection it will be remembered that it has been admitted that here are no fewer than 1,500 Japanese civilians already in the Yangtze basin, who are obviously there for the purpose of reviving Japanese trade in that area as quickly as possible, hoping to have secured a commanding position in the trade before pressure obliges the Japanese to reopen the river.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.