Reasons

Since the fall of Hankow and Canton last October, fighting in China has remained desultory. Best reason for this has been that the Japanese military could not decide whether to pursue Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his Communist allies into the ragged highlands of southwestern and northwestern China (which foreign observers estimate would require another 500,000 men) or to spread out beyond the roads and rivers and really take over the territory the army has only penetrated.

Last week New York Times Correspondent Hallett Abend offered another and more sensational reason why there has not been more fighting. From Shanghai, Correspondent Abend cabled that military experts in the Far East had had their eyes on Japanese troop movements from the Chinese occupied zones northward toward the Siberian-Manchukuo border. So many soldiers have been withdrawn, said Mr. Abend, that the Canton area is now held by only 25,000 men, the huge Yangtze Valley and Central China districts by only 200,000.

Only one explanation for the extraordinary troop movement was advanced by Mr. Abend: Japan was preparing an attack on Soviet Russia. With tRe Chinese still fighting valiantly, Japan in her right senses would scarcely think of attacking Russia alone. To Mr. Abend it therefore seemed logical that Japan had received assurances from her European allies, Germany and Italy, that they planned "demands and activities" near European Russia that would hold Soviet troops and materiel in the west.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.