Yet even central Hopei can scarcely be said to be effectively occüpied. The guerillas still hold the countryside. hiding among hundreds Of villages scattered over the vast plain, while the Japanese precariously entrenched behind barbed wire entanglements—for the guerillas have destroyed the walls of many of the towns before leaving—exercise no influence over the surrounding district. Even when a city-has been occupied, it does not help very much towards pacifying the country, because of the ever increasing difficulty of finding persons to carry on any kind of lócal administration.
When Japanese forces approach a town, all prominent people are ordered to leave. and only the riff-raff is left behind and those who take on a job under the Japanese do so enormous risk, as they are promptly shot if caught by the guerillas. The farmers of the surrounding districts have no longer any inducement to bring their produce to a practically deserted' city, so that the Japanese have to bring all their supplies by lorry from the nearest railway station.
In this they are greatly hampered by the destruction of the motor roads, the guerillas digging trenches six feet deep across them. The famous raw cotton supplies, which were to have been one of the prizes of the campaign, are also proving illusory, ihe guerillas have been able to stop the farmers planting this crop, which has consequently, it is said, been reduced by 80 per cent
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.