Uncertainties in Japan While the former German military advisers of
China, recalled for political reasons by Herr Hitler, were declaring in Berlin that Japan could not hope to win the war, the Japanese armies on the Yangtse have been preparing for a new drive on Hankow. This may fare better than last week's, which was very definitely checked, for elaborate preparations have been made and a large number of fresh troops brought up. But Japan has not got unlimited forces in China, and to move them from one spot means giving opportunities to the always active guerilla forces there. That in itself is one reason why the judgement expressed by the German advis;..r commands credence. Japan's general policy is as uncerta;-„ as her military prospects, partly, no doubt, because thc Cabin; is divided on the question. A curious message from Tokyo in Tuesday's Times speaks of newspaper reports of a am policy, attributed to the Foreign Minister, General UgaV, of conciliating other countries interested in China, par- ticularly Great Britain, but adds that Foreign Office official; deny that policy has in any way changed. Japanese nationa:- ists and imperialists are in a heady mood ; nothing in the nature of a set-back in China is admitted ; and anti-British feeling in those quarters is strong. There may be an open split between the moderates and extremists. Meanwhile Japan continues to exhaust herself in China, and to accumulate against her the reprobation of any part of the world that can be considered civilised by such acts of savagery as the machine- gunning of a Chinese passenger plane by fourteen Japanese fighter planes on Tuesday.. Though fighting on the Soviet frontier has ceased, no progress towards the appointment of a demarcation commission is recorded.
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