Early in 1938 representatives from all districts not under direct japanese occupation gathered at Fouping, a small town to the west of Paotingfu close io the Shansi border, and formed a new, so-called regional government which took over the administration of the still independent territory. It was a migratory kind of administration conducted on lines suited to meet. the constant Japanese raids. For &bout half a year it had time to consolidate itself and bring back some kind of order to the country districts.
In November of last year the Japanese, having brought large reinforcements into north China, started an intensive campaign from the east and west, that is to say from the Peiping-Hankow and the Tientsin-Pukow Railways. in order to clean up central Hope After about five months constant fighting and with considerable losses they succeded in occupying all the towns far south as about half-way to the Yellow River.
As they found that the system of raids and retirements had not brought satisfactory results, they decided this time to change their methods and started garrisoning the larger towns of central Hopei. For this purpose further reinforcements of about 50,000
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.