Vatican City, Oct. 22 The fall of Canton to the Japanese is an event of the utmost importance not only from the strategical but also, and especially, from the morale point of view, the "Osservatory Romano", semi-official Vatican newspaper, asserts today.
It asserts that this Japanese success will serve to shake violently not only General Chiang Kai-shek's personal position but the situation of the western powers.
Continuing its comments, the organ declares that Japan's military action aims to envelop international settlements in China...."So far as Canton is concerned, it is not only settlements, but flourishing colonies which are now in direct contact with Jepanese expansion. This will certainly have incalculable influence on western interests. And these, though political or economic, are linked to the development of civilization. The loss of Canton means the end of China's independence."
The "Osservatore Romano" com-peres the slow Japanese advance against Hankow, "whose defence is a worthy example," to the speedy expedition against Canton.
"Japan now controls the great Chinese ports and thus the great Chinese rivers; therefore, the most important Agricultural and commercial resources of China fall to her, too. It can now be concluded that Japan will never abandon her aims im China, however desperate and heroic Chinese resistance may be."—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.