SubscRmER, in a letter to the Editor on Thursday, posed' a number of questions raised in discussion and as there has been no response an attempt to answer them is now made. His questions were:
1. What is the estimated number of Chinese civilians under Japanese domination in China?
2. What is the estimated mileage of ferriter: in China under the Japanese?
The number of aeroplanes in the German Air Force and in the British Air Force?
4. The number of aeroplanes turned out monthly by Germany and Great Britain?
The first two questions refer to the extent of Japanese occupation of China since the outbreak of the hostilities. According to a recent statement of the Army Section of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, on the basis of figures obtained at the end of November, which virtually marked the end of the Japanese advance after the capture of Hankow and the occupation of advanced positions about 100 miles west of this city, the area in Japanese control was 1,505,700 square kilometres amounting roughly to 47 per cent of the territory still under Nationalist control. The population of this area is roughly 170,000,- 000 and the statement claimed complete occupation of Chahar, Suiyuan, Hopei, Shan-lung, Shansi and Anhwei. In addi tion, the larger part of Honan and parts of ug, Kiangsi and Kwangtung are aho under Japanese control. Incidentally, the same statement claims that the total length of the Japanese Central China and North China front is 2975 kilometres, or about four times the length of the Western front during the Great War. The two questions relating to German and British aeroplanes are not so asy to answer. for the figures he seeks are josely guarded secrets of the two Governments. The production capacity of the two countries is not known and the strength of their air fleets has varied so greatly in public statements that it is impossible to—answer with any degree of accuracy. The mania for ation has been so acute in recent months that tremendous numbers of machines we been credited to both countries, but, according to the London "Sunday Times" air correspondent, who declares his figures have been checked in several quarters, Germany last September had 3,200 machines and Great Britain 2.200.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.