It would appear that the Japanese are working on much the same lines as they did in the pacification of Manchoukuo. But the problem in North China is a very different one. The guerillas continue to receive at least moral support from the National Government, and above all the extent of country to be pacified is infinitely greater, and the population much denser than in Manchoukuo.
Many observers are of the opinion that the Japanese have not sufficient forces at present for the task in hand, scarcely enough to guard the railway lines properly or garrison the larger towns. If they send out larger expeditions, they have little difficulty in dispersing the badly-armed guerillas, but as soon as they withdraw the bulk of their forces, the Chinese move in again, cut up the small posts left behind, and the country reverts to its former condition, As things are at present, it looks as if the only way the Japanese would be able to establish effective control over the whole of North China would be by keeping large garrisons stationed permanently all over the countryside. For that they will require very much larger forces thàn they have at present in these parts.
Peiping an Empty Shell Peiping is quiet and goes about its business as usual, as it has always done, even in the old days of alarms and excursions of the civil wars.
But that is about all one can say in its favour for living conditions have not improved, and it is but the empty shell of its former self. Trade is bad, the cost of living has gone steadily up, there is much unemployment, and the difficulties of finding a living, specially among the educated classes, has greatly increased.
The city is no cleaner than it used io be, and the streets have been allowed to fall into a bad state of disrepair; the police, it is true, are now clothed in new uniforms, à la
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.