Sept, 20, General Chiang Kai-shek's appeal, addressed to the inhabitants of Manchoukuo on the seventh anniversary of the Mukden Incident, containing the promise that the day of their delivery is near, is one which all those who sympathize with China in her distress will {hope is proved to be true, but in face of the realities of the situation' the doubt is felt whether there is room for so much optimism the Generalissimo shows. The reasons which he quotes why China took up arms against the Japanese last year are good ones. Whether it was quite the time to do so or not is entirely beside the point, and when he says "we have suffered innumerable humiliations in past years, and we took up arms against the Japanese because we are determined to deliver you from the Japanese yoke" he is stating the truth with regard to the former. With regard to the latter part of the sentence it is probably more true to state that arms were resorted to last year more with the intention of endeavouring to prevent the further rape of north China than for the purpose of liberating Manchoukuo. Manchoukuo had always been more or less of an academic question so far as Nanking was concerned, and its loss to the Japanese was
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.