At the same time the despatch of troops into the hill country to clean them up is even more useless. It is difficult to maintain contact with bases and the guerillas know the hills a thousand times better than the Japanese army ever will. There have been disquieting, for the Japanese, tales of what happens to Japanese troops that venture far from the North China plain into the hills. No official confirmation is forthcoming but there are persistent Chinese reports of severed feet of Japanese soldiers being found hanging in trees on the hillside.
One report declares that 300 have been found, their discovery solving the mystery of the disappearance of a band of troops sent into the hills northwest of Peiping to clean out guerilla nests. i This happens, be it remembered, in territory which was captured in July 1937, fifteen months ago, since when no progress towards pacification has been registered. Indeed it looks like a job that will take years to accomplish and that isa long time to keep an army of occupation in North China and a long time to wait for dividends from the paradise which the Japanese army set out to create, The railways can get plenty of freight and with half a million passengers per month the total income must be considerable, certainly sufficient to relieve the army of some of the burden of paying the troops. Presumably the idea will in time be carried further.
Everything possible is being done by the Japanese railway authorities to Their Majesties attended the annual gillies' ball for the tenants, servants and gillies on the royal estate of Balmoral Abergeldy, and Birkball at Balmoral Castle on October 8, accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Kent. Others present included the Earl of Airlie and Mrs. Farquharson of Invercauld.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.