The report that the Chinese Government is preparing to move from Hankow shows that, despite recent Japanese military successes in the field, it is proceeding according to plans announced quite early in the hostilities, There is at present no signs that the achievements of the invaders have in'any way affected the dē- termination expressed quite a long time aga by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to continue fighting a war of attrition, and to refuse to surrender to any of the Japanese claims which were originally made. The picture presents itself of a large portion'of China under Japanese military dominance harassed along its borders by the forces immediately under the control of the Chinese Government, and maintained in a continual state of unrest internally by the activities of guerillas. It is a state of affairs which might be prolonged indefinitely, for it is inconceivable that the Japanese will ever succeed in subjugating the whole of China, without which it must always remain a cause of anxiety to Tokyo. The decision to maintain only government civilian departments at Chungking, and to remove those others, which might have about them a military complexion, either to Yunnanfu or to some undesignated point, as it is reported will be the case of the headquarters of the Generalissimo, should prove a sufficient reason why the Szechuanese city should not be bombed, and at the same time should serve to displace the whole province as a focus for Japanese military intentions. Whether that will be the case or not remains to be seen, but it is quite clear that the Chinese authorities are now contemplating failing back into the mountainous regions of west and south China, out of which fastnesses they may be expected to maintain a continual gruelling warfare designed to rob the Japanese of many of their fruits of victory, and keep them at an expense calculated to add heavily to the already enormous outlay to which this present adventure has condemned them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.