Peiping, Jan, 14.
During the present. conflict in China the Japanese have given sev: feral. interesting interpretations "of English "words: there have been incident," "sincerity." and the famous "pincer movement" to mention only a few; "while in recent months "mopping-up operations" have formed favourite feature of the Japanese military communiques. Listening. the Press conference, as the spokes man roads oura tong list of these operations in places, the names of Which were mentioned in the same connection @ year or more ago, oF which are in Some eases uncomfortably nearer to Peiping, doubts. begin to assail one as to the suitability of the term.
Te seems to me that mopping-up is. scoreely "the right description; "stirring up" would surely be nearer the mark. The guerillas do not seem to be mopped-up at all, if, as T presume, mopping-up means wiping out. 'All that happens would appear to be that they are chased out of one dis-let only to re-appear promptly. another, even less desirable, district, We have hud two ineklents' recently which seem to prove this very con Vineingly and are all the more striking, because: they have happened in the' vicinity of Peiping.
At the beginning of this month we thud boon told of some highly success~ ful mopping-up operations in the hills nu the valley of the Hunho which had. taken place on January 8 and in which Ube bandits had. been completely annihilated. "Yet only three days "tater a band of uniformed {ucritias comes down from these same hills and carries off a foreigner in Broad daylight, on a well-frequented motor road, and from under the very nnoxes of @ Japanese garrison,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.