It is but natural that public opinion in Europe and the United States should have been profoundly stirred by the bombing which has recently taken place in China and Spain. The fact that both the parties, against whom indiseriminate bombing is alleged, have claimed to be aiming at military establishments does not diminish the alarm felt over the large numbers of civilians who have been killed in both countries, In Spain the Nationalists seem to have adopted the most callous attitude to the protests which have been made to them, their answer to the Republican Government being to evacuate the civilian population if they did not want it bombed, It is a very poor answer. Nor does the Japanese claim generally repeated in the commencement of their communiques, that their air-raids have been directed against military objectives, free them from the blame arising from the deaths of so many civilians in Canton and elsewhere. It is readily conceded that by reason of its situation, and the part it is playing in the defence of China against Japanese invasion, Caiton is a legitimate target for the attention of Japanese bombers, but it is still required, in the interests of humanity, that the activities of the raiders should be directed against the military objectives with which Canton abounds. Either the Japanese raiders. have been forced by Cantonese anti-aircraft artillery to fly at such a height that precision is impossible—and there is nothing in the reports up to ihe present to show that Chinese anti-aircraft defence has ever reached such excellence—or the raiding is being carried out without the slightest regard for the defenceless civilian. It can hardly be believed that either the Spanish Nationalist or the Japanese high commands ¢an for one moment still believe in the psychological effect of the bombing of open cities as a means to achieving victory, for if anyone should know that such means are not fraught with the possibilities of success it should be the Spanish Nationalist high command, It is increasingly clear that this defiancggof world opinion on the part of the Spanish Nationalists arises from the desperation of frustration, being denied that early victory which it was thought a successful drive to the Mediterranean coast would give them. It would at this juncture be rash to think that a similar inspiration is behind these repeated bombings of Canton, but' the opinion is rapidly growing that the failure of the Japanese armies to gain that quick success, which was so glibly forecast at the commencement of hostilities, is assisting exasperation to defeat inherent good sense, Kuomintang Prodigals Too much credence should not be given to attempts being made to magnify the importance of the re-admission to the Kuomintang fold of a number of Communist and other leaders ai Chinese thought of slightly unorthodox complexion, into yet another proof of the rap bolshevization of China. Since the Kuomintang and the Communists decided to bury the hatchet in their own quarrel in order the better to wield it in the quarrel of the nation against Japan, a domestic aly has existed. The Kuomintang's allies were besmirched by the ancient ban of the Party, sometimes imposed as long as fourteen years ago. It might have been seen, therefore, that it could be only a matter of time before this political stigma was removed, provided the new allies proved themselves trustworthy. This they have undoubtedly done, and "the action of the Kuomintang Central Supervisory Committee in restoring their old privileges follows as a natural result. Nothing in the behaviour of the Communists since the Sian rapprochement has lent support to the belief that they are trying to undermine the authority of General Chiang Kai-shek, Nor that they are planning to hand over the country, lock, stock, ¿nd barrel, to Soviet Russia. On the contrary. their courage in harassing much better equipped Japanese troops seems to prove their determination to see that China remains first and foremost for the Chinese.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.