The raid on Taihoku, For i A E name, ty Cine Sino-Japanese hostilities which show no sign of an early conclusion despite the spate of peace reports. Hitherto, Japan has justifiably claimed mastery of the air in China, a position acquired after the first few days of the outbreak when Chinese raiding activities on Shanghai gravely threatened the Japanese forces here, At that time Japanese aeroplanes were of a very slow and old type and proved no match for the new Chinese machines, most of which had been bought only a few months before under the Chiang Kai-shek "birthday scheme." Since then, of course Japan has brought in much more modern machines, and some thousands of bombing flights have been made, the most distant interior point reached being Chungking, while Chinese aerial activities, outside the successes at Hankow, have been negligible. Now the sequence of events shows every indication of reversing. Chinese air units are striking back by invasion of Japanese territory, and it needs little imagination to conceive the feeling of surprise which this development has been received within a few days of the spokesman's statement that "entire China now finds itself under the eagle wings of the Japanese Naval Air Force." Probably it does, but Japanese territory now no longer enjoys the immunity gained at the expense of attacking Chinese bases. Air raid precautions were adopted throughout Kyushu, Japan, including Nagasaki, on Thursday after Chinese aeroplanes had been sighted heading in that direction. Apparently, they never reached their destination even if it were their intention to attack points in Japan Proper, but it does reveal that following the Japanese example the Chinese air force, re-organized and re-equipped with new machines and personnel, is stretching out to more distant points, Widespread operations are now envisaged making Japan's combative plans more difficult, and although Shanghai may be adequately protected as the principal Japnese base in the Yangtze Valley yet it would be foolish to ignore possibilities. The days and weeks which once were used as the yardstick in the Far East only a few years ago are reduced to fractions of hours by aeroplanes, say with a speed of 180-200 miles an hour, which is by no means high. A map illustrating this point will be found on another page.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.