Disregarding the precise details of the damage claimed to have been effected—and many extravagant claims have been made in this respect in recent months—reports of the aerial activity over the Yangtze "between Chinese id Japanese machines indicate that the floods may have retarded land operations but another sphere of operations is capable of action. Scores of aeroplanes have been in.combat on a larger scale than hitherto witnessed, and although it is difficult to estimate the results it is apparent that greater activity in the air is likely as the Japanese continue their drive on Hankow. Air operations have been very one-sided with raids on towns or military bases, being combatted by defending forces with the Japanese taking the initiative but aerial war-fore appears now to have taken a different form and the Chinese are revealing that they are equally capable of striking back at the attacker. Such a development is bound to increase as the Japanese advance farther up the Yangtze and it can be expected that these air battles will be intensified now that the long distances between aerodromes and bases have been reduced. The reason why Canton has been defended only by anti-aircraft guns and not by direct action by aeroplanes in the air, which is the most effective form of defence, becomes more and more apparent. General Chiang Kai-shek has concentrated the bulk of his air force in the vicinity of Hankow where it can be used directly against the Japanese as one powerful unit instead of reducing it to relative impotence by having it scattered at several points and con stituting an easy target for a numerically stronger opponent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.