While events in the neighbourhood of Shanghai have of necessity attracted very considerable attention, it is as well, in order to obtain a complete picture of what is happening, to pay some regard to events in North China. It is by no means improbable that the rapidity with which they march in that area may have a very considerable effect upon the duration of hostilities in and around Shanghai and Nanking. Whatever may. be said of the morality of Japan's behaviour, there can be little doubt as to the military wisdom of her commanders, for the descent into this district has had the effect of diverting large bodies of Chinese troops here who might have provided very effective reinforcement for those armies which are at present gallantly attempting to stop the Japanese seizure of the northern provinces, and whose performance suggests that they might have been more successful had they been so strengthened. Since the Loukouchiao incident on July 7, the Japanese forces have progressed southwards at a very fair rate and as a result they are in control of some between forty and fifty thousand square miles of territory, to which, according to a telegram published elsewhere will probably have to be added the area of Inner Mongolia which the Japanese claim the Mongolian Princes are considering transforming into a buffer state. Thus the campaign which has been carried on in Suiyuan by the Mongol allies of Japan, who have skilfully managed that the Mongols shall secure the credit for victories obtained, has to be taken as part of Japan's general scheme for the creation of adequate protection of her right flank against the possibility of the long anticipated conflict with Russia.
The closer, and, to some extent, more important movement in Shansi, Hopei and ultimately Shantung indicates that the Chinese have availed themselves well of the physical characteristics of the territory, and the present Japanese line indicates how those Characteristics have operated against the invaders in some districts. Thus Japanese commanders have found very considerable difficulty in making progress in the mountains of Shansi, as evidenced by the stern resistance offered by the Chinese north of Taiyuanfu and the successful manner in which it is holding up the advance upon the provincial capital In the plains of Hopei the Chinese have not been so successful, chiefly because of the facility with which the Japanese mechanized army is able to operate down the Peiping-Hankow Railway along which they have now proceeded well south of Shihchiachwang. Floods on the eastern portion of the Japanese line have tended to retard progress down the Tientsin-Pukow line, but as the water drains off the conditions applying further west will be restored, and the next natural obstacles which will have to be encountered in that area will be the "I find that full electric service in my home including electric refrigeration and cooking—costs no more than for less modern methods.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.