~ January 19, 1940

THE ADVOCATE

Page Five

JABDAR®S’S PROBLEM IN CHINA

By M. TURGENEYVEV

Hi The Ghinese army is gradually

ii becoming stronger organization-
, ally, perfecting and tempering it-
‘self in battle. It has improved
its fighting ability to such an ex-
tent that it is now beginning to

} the offensive.

The command of Japanese
troops operating in China appar-
jently has not sufficient forces at
‘its disposal to develop operations
‘on a wide scale.

All the operations carried out

+. by the Japanese in 1939 were dir-

‘ected in the main towards retain-
‘ing territory already occupied. In
_ addition to this, it set itself the

'’ task of taking possession of the

—

| most important and strategic
districts from which it would
have been possible to operate

if along the communications of the
' Chinese troops and to force them

ind
he

| to capitulate little by little.
The Japanese command also

|) pursued the aim of cutting

' Ghine’s communication routes

Mii with the outside world along
ate): which it also receives the neces-

;

BJ

1 ay

=

|

FS

) sary arms and equipment.

, undertaken by the Japanese
) in 19389 were the Nanchang and
Siansyang-Nanyang operations,
those in North China and the of-
fensive on Changsha.

At the end of 1938, after five
months of stubborn fighting, the

kow. The only means of com-
munication, both for the Japan-
ese garrison stationed in Hankow
and for the units protectins Han-
kow from the northwest and
south was the Yangtze River. It
was along the banks of this river
that they transported all neces-
Sary equipment to their troops.
This communication route was
the object of very frequent at-
tacks by the Chinese troops quar-
tered near the southern bank of
the Yangtzze and by the Chinese
air force which had its base in
Nanchang. This circumstance
and the conditions for operations
at the front to the south of the
Yangtze that arose at that time,

= obiiged the Japanese to launch

the so-called Nanchang offensive
with the object of seizing the
Wanchange-Yochow-Changsha dis-
trict. Se Bly!
Starting military operations on
March 20 (the first launched by
the Japanese in 1939) the Japan-
ese struck their first blow at

HE: semi -official United
States Army and Navy
Journal, a publication for of-
ficers in the Army and Navy,
seemingly is not taken in by
alleged’ news dispatches from
Helsinks, Copenhagen and
Stockholm on the triumphs of
Baron Mannerheim’s armies.
While the journal editorially
supports the Helsinki regime,
its military comment serves to
corroborate Soviet staff observa-
tions on the peculiar difficulties
presented by the Finnish terrain
and the essential difference, in a
military sense, between the Fin-
nish campaign and the German
eceupation of Poland.

The Red Army, in its commun-
ique of Dec. 23, replied to those
who asserted it had planned a
*‘blitzkriee’ which failed, with the
following statement:

‘Undoubtedly such villification
can only be explained by either
overt and crude slander against
the Red Army or by the ignor-
ance of its authors in military af-
fairs.”

Woting the unusual difficulties
presented by the Finnish terrain
and the modern fortification in
possession of the Mannerheim
forces, the Soviet communique
added:

“The Red Army knew of these
difficulties in Finland and there-
fore never expected to annihilate
the Finnish troops by one light-
ning blow” ’

In connection with these ob-
servations, it is interesting to
note an unsigned article on ‘The
War on Land,’ appearing in the
Dec. 30 issue of the Army and
Navy Journal, which said:

nee detracting any from
the stubborn defense being
put up by the Finns in defense
of their territory, it must be
pointed out that the problem of
Russia in taking that territory is
vastly different from that of the
Germans in their Polish cam-
Ppaign.

“Poland was taken under the
most favorable of weather and

| over, terrain similar to our mid-

west plains. Russia, on the other

et
7

+

hand, has not even been fortun-
ate in the type of cold weather
brought by this season, for the
snow, instead of being the nor-

Wanchang and on March 29 oc-
cupied the city. They then de-
veloped the offensive on GChang-
sha to the west of Nanchang and,
as it seems, simultaneously dir-
ected an auxiliary blow from Yo-
chow.

Advancing up to Shankow (ap-
proximately 100 kilometres to
the northwest of Nanchang) they.
met with stubborn resistance
from the Chinese who passing
over to a resolute counter-offen-
Sive swept back the Japanese to
Hanchang, causing them heavy
losses. The attempt of the Jap-
anese to attack Changsha from
Wochow also ended in failure und
the offensive succumbed in the
very first days it was launched.
The Japanese, suffering great
losses, went over to the defensive
in this sector.

OLLOWING the unsuccessful

attempt to extend their base

to the south of the Yangtze River

the Japanese embarked on a new

operation a month later on Siang-

yang-Nanyang from northwest of
Hankow.

The Sianyang-Nanyang opera-
tion started on April 29 with an
offensive by cavalry and motor-
ized units in the direction of
Siangyang and aimed at cutting
off the retreat of Chinese troops
to the west across the Hankiane
River and at surrounding them in
the Siangyang-Nanyang district.
Successfully advancing their left
flank, the Japanese occunied Sin-
yeh and started to march on
Siangyang-Nanyang stretching
their communication lines up to
200 kilometres: (about 120 miles).

The resolute counteroffensive
of the Chinese and the intercep-
tion of all Japanese communica-
tion lines by Chinese partisans,
interrupted the normal supply of
ammunition, food supplies, and
fodder to the Japanese troops
and created a situation in which
the Japanese themselves were en-
circled. Later under pressure of
the Chinese troops and partisan
detachments the Japanese began
a hurried retreat,

Pursued by the Chinese from
all sides, the Japanese were able,
nevertheless, to break through
their encirclement, true, at a cost
of heavy losses, and on May 26
retreated to their initial posi-
tions.

Thus, also, this operation,
which lasted for more than a
month, resulted in nothing for

mal, dry snow, has been wet and
heavy, while the ice and marshes
have been mushy instead of hard-
frezen — all impediments to mili-
tary operations either on foot or
by: motor.

“Then, too, virtually a contin-
ual fog has hung over the coun-
try, forbidding any effective air
eperations. In addition, the very
conformation of the land, lakes
and inlets through which the in-
vading army must wend its way,
precludes the use of the over-
whelming forces available to the
invader, for there is just no room
to operate.

@

4 pee appears to be no ground
for the large number of re-
ports reaching this country that
the Russians are inadequately
equipped and fed and that many
are freezing to death because of
inadequate clothing and shelter.
As a matter of fact, it is quite
likely that the losses have been
Considerably less than contended
in dispatches. As a matter of
fact, the entire Russian invading
forces number only some 200,000
men.

=

the Japanese outside of tremen-
dous losses running into several
tens of thousands killed and
wounded.

HROUGHOUT the whole of

1939, in North China and par-
ticularly in Shansi province fierce
fighting took place between Jap-
anese troops and Chinese parti-
sans.

The Japanese undertook eight
campaigns against Chinese parti-
sans operating in North China
without, however, gaining any
cardinal successes in this war-
fare. In North China the Jap-
anese actually control only the
railway lines and the highroads
with a territory stretching along
them measured from 50 to i100
kilometres in width (about 30 to
60 miles). /

The Japanese offensive on
Changsha started Sept. 14. This
operation, as its course of devel-
opment showed, was similar in
plan to the Nanchang operation.
The only difference lay in the
fact that whereas in the Nan-
chang operation the main blow of
the Japanese was delivered from
Nanchang and the auxiliary blow
from WYochow, in the operations
against Chansha the Japanese
acted in the reverse.

The Japanese offensive on
Changsha from Yochow was de-
veloped successfully at the begin-
ning of the operation while from
Nanchang poor headway -was
made. Here the Japanese came
up against stubborn resistance
from the Chinese troops and lost
some 30,000 men in this sector.

Only one operation so far un-
dertaken by the Japanese com-
mand at the end of 1939 was
crowned with success. This was
the operation where troops were
landed at Tsinchow in the dis-
trict of Pakhoi and followed up
by an offensive of Japanese
troops in the Kwangsi province
and the seizure of Nanning.

tL)

HIUS it can be seen from this

summary of military opera-
tions for 1939 that results of these
operations have not introduced
any essential changes in the Jap-
anese war outside of the above-
mentioned operation. The gen-
eral situation of military opera-
tions along all fronts of the Jap-
anese-Chinese war shows the fol-
lowing picture:

Landing troops in the Pakhoi

“While the Russians have
made little genuine progress in
their southern sector around the
Karelian Isthmus, they appear
to be going satisfactory in the
north where they set out from
Murmansk. It would seem that
the Russian design to use the
southern drive toward Helsinki
to keep the Finns busy there
while the northern action will cut
them off from Sweden and de
prive them of supplies from that
source and from the ocean in the
north. Meanwhile, the drive in
the central sector, across the nar-
rowest part of Finland, is intend-
ed to cut the little nation in half,
disrupt communications and
leave the southern section isolat-
ed, to be squeezed out in time,”

if THE succeeding, Jan. 6 issue,

the following appeared in the
same column: “... The Aittajjoki
base, near the Russian frontier
north of Lake Ladoga, apparent-
ly could not have been a major
one for the dispatches claimed
that the Finns captured only
three machine guns, a field kit-
chen, and 400 Red Army great-

OUT OF THEIR
OWN MOUTHS:

bb HAT’S in a word?” seems to be the slogan adopted

eontlict.

Compare these two statements.

by correspondents ‘reporting’ the Finnish-Soviet

Both appeared in the

same issue of the New York Times:

Pa

*

(By K. J. Eskelund. Wireless to New York Times)
With the Finnish Army, on the Karelian Isthmus, Jan. 7.
—The commander of the company, just back from the front,
gave us an example of how small the Finnish losses on the

Mannerheim Line are.

“Our company destroyed more Rus-

sian tanks than it lost men,” he declared.

*

+k

(By Harold Denny. Special Cable to New York Times)

With the Finnish Army, on the Karelian Isthmus, Jan, 7.
—One young company commander said tonight that his unit
was warmly sheltered and did not wish to be relieved for
another month at least. This lieutenant, incidentally, said his
country had destroyed more Soviet tanks than it had lost

in dead.

calculated to exhaust the Japanese. The vast territory occupied by the theatre of military operations with its boetle
“population numbering millions, obliged the Japaanese command to assign considerable forces to protect its rear, which ‘s
+ | constantly raided not only by partisans but also by Chinese regulars.

! 4 ee Japanese-Chinese war is continuing with its former force and tenacity and has acquired the form of a protracted war

district at Tsingchow, the Japan-
ese successfully developed their
offensive in the north. However,
after reaching Nanning and talk-
ing Possession of
unable to advance any further
due to the stubborn resistance of
the Chinese troops. In the Pak-
hoi-Nanning sector the Japanese
are actually hemmed in in a
Semi-circle,

After the occupation of Ganton
at the end of 1938, the Japanese
were able during 1938 to entrench
themselves firmly only in Gan-
ton itself and in the immediate
approaches to the city. Their re-
peated attempts to spread aqut
to the north and south of Can-
ton met with failure in this sec-
tor. Fighting of a local charac-
ter is going on all the time at
the approaches to Ganton.

Actually the Japanese are semi-
circled in Canton. The Sikiang
River is their only means of
egress from Canton and is at
the same time their communica-
tion route which connects Ganton
with South China Sea. This com-
munication route is well guarded
by the Japanese fleet against
which the Chinese have no fleet
to counterpose,

e

‘hes Japanese are firmly en-
trenched only in Swatow it-
self. All their attempts to spread
out to the north and west have
ended in failure. Chaochow 13s
passing from hand to hand.

After a number of failures suf-
fered by the Japanese in their
operations carried out in 1939,
the Japanese troops operating in
Gentral China passed over to the
defensive on all sectors of this
front and up to the middle of
December only minor clashes be-
tween small detachments took
place here.

During the last few days mili- .

tary operations in Gentral China
have again intensified. Moreover
this time, accordng to informa-
tion of the press, the initiative
lies with the Chinese troops who
have started to launch attacks on
various sectors of the front and
it seems with success.

The situation on both sides in
North China continues to remain
without any particular changes
and fighting continues to be of a
purely partisan character. The
Chinese - partisans. are firmly
holding their main districts, and
constitute a continual langer to
the communications of the Jap-
anese troops,

US ARMY VIEW OF RED ARMY

coats, along with other material
not mentioned.

“While Finnish victories are
being prepared in the norfh and
central theatres, in the south
along the Karelian Isthmus and
the Mannerheim Line dispatches
mention only greater concentra-
tions of Russian troops, artillery
and tanks. While this would ap-
pear to indicate massing for a
drive, it is more likely that it is
intended to draw the Finns from
the other fronts, for it has been
quite apparent that the Russians
do not plan to lose huge numbers
of men trying to break through
in the south, while the possibility
of cutting the country in two and
loslating her from assistance ex-
ists in the central front. Once
the so-called Eastern front drive
has pushed across the little na-
tion, the Soviets have only to
contain the Finns in the south-
ern part of their country until re-
Sistance becomes futile.

“That the Russians are not
seriously planning a drive in the
South would appear from the re-
ports labelled as ‘reliable’ that
they are digging in, Setting up
concrete machine-gun emplace-
ments, and taking other meas-
ures that could indicate stabil-
ization rather than Prparation
for a drive.”

4 pee Paris correspondent of the

Army and Navy J ournal, Gol.
T. Bentley Mott, wrote on the
difficulties of the Finnish terrain
in the Dec. 30 issue:

“The Karelian Isthmus has 4
line of fortification running from
Lake Ladoga to, the Gulf of Fin-
land, a serious obstacle to pass;
the 200,000 lakes and the innum-
erable forests leave only defiles
between them, easy to defend
roads are extremely rare and read-
ily cut; there are almost no towns,
few villages, and only scattered
habitations, making it most diffi-
cult for large forces to move, biv-
ouac and get up supplies, espe-
cially in such bitter weather as
will now obtain for six months.”

Though the specific conclusions
drawn by these writers need not
be accepted, it is evident that these
military men, writing for military
men and not for the general pub-
lic, do not take seriously the
stories printed in the general
press under the guise of ‘news’.”

it, they were.

SHORT
JABS

by OF Bill

“Li od memories.” That is an
Another Sue ae eae ee wisdom born of the ex-
Off Base. perience of countless ages of human relations.
It is a good deal truer than the pronouncement of King David in his
wrath that “all men are liars,” because it is the impartial judgment of
cool and evenly balanced minds unaffected by emotion.

The truth of the old saw is again demonstrated in the Vancouver Sun
and the Christian Science Monitor, by publication in these papers of a
few letters allegedly written by a Russian woman to her Red army
husband in Finland. I say allegedly, because the letters as published
in the Sun bear 41] the hallmarks of being a product of the vivid imagi-
nation of the Christian Science Monitor correspondent or some White
Finn who played him for a ‘come-on.’

The headline in the Sun reads: ‘Marusya W rites To Her Man In The
Finnish War But She Will Get No Reply.’ Then, in the lead to ‘Marus-
ya's’ letters, the Sun’s editor writes, Elim Pavlovich marched with the
other Russian soldiers into Finland a few months ago.” Elim Pavylo-
vich did not, nor did any other Russian soldier, march into Finland
a few months ago.

These letters were published in the Sun, Jan. 12, 1940. On Nov. 26,
1939, at 3:45 pm, Soviet troops in Karelia were fired upon by Finnish
artillery. Four Red army men were killed and seven wounded. On the
evening of the same day, Molotov lodged a protest with the Finnish
government. In reply, an irreconcilably ostile note was received,
which showed that the Finnish government had no intention of at-
tempting to maintain friendly relations with the Soviet government.

On Novy. 28, 1939, the Soviet government denounced the Soviet-Fin-

nish non-aggression pact which the Finns had already denounced in fact

by firing into Soviet territory and killing and wounding Soviet citizens.
On Nov. 30, the first Red army soldiers crossed the Finnish border, only
five weeks before the publication of these phoney letters in the Sun.
Is that a few months?

The dates on the letters, on which there are four, are: Oct 15, Oct. 21,
Nov. 3, and Noy. 24 All these dates are previous to the Finnish attack
on Soviet Karelia and the most recent one, a full week before there was
one Red army soldier in Finland. A passage in the first letter—Oct. 15—
is a dead give-away. It reads: “Some people say you will be home soon.
Others say, not until peace is made.” How could peace be made six
weeks before the war started?

No! These letters were not written by a Russian Marusya to her
Elim Pavlovich; they were concocted by the Christian Science Monitor
correspondent or some of his Finnish White Guard friends, and they.
were meant for the Canadian and American people as propaganda on
behalf of fascism and imperialism,

Who Gets One of the scribblers of the Boston Herald, George

Ryan, quoted in the Victoria Times, is in a quan-
Stuck? dary. He read somewhere that some travel writer
explains that there is practically no middle class in South America.
Says Mr. Ryan, “How refreshingly different! Who gets stuck for every-
thing down there?”

Although we are not interested in helping Mr. Ryan out, the answer
is ‘refreshingly simple.’ The same class gets stuck for everything in
South America as in Boston or Victoria or any other spot where capi-
talism is cock of the walk, the working class,

It is the working class that carries all the burdens of war and peace
They produce all the wealth that is squandered by the playboys of Wall
and St. James streets. They pay the taxes of the big shots and the
middie class; even though J. P. Morgan played the gyp and evaded
paying his income taxes for six years, they gave him the money to do so.
They provide the hundreds of millions that is doled out to themselves
for relief when they are unemployed, Yes, Mr. Ryan, the working elass
is the answer to your question. It is the working class that gets stuck
for everything.

At the beginning of the war London electricity
And How! and gas companies appealed to the London people
to be economical in the use of these two lighting

commodities in order to conserve national resources.
Times change, however; so do conditions. Evacuation of large sec-
tions of the people from the cities to the country, the blackouts and the

fall in the purchasing power of wages, caused the people of London to
cut the demand for light.

Now Central Electricity Ltd. has raised its charges by amounts
ranging up to 30 percent. Reason for the increase: the severe fall in the
consumption of electricity since outbreak of war.

As with the electrical barons, so too with the Sas and coke moguls.
For 2,800,000 users of §as in London the price of gas has gone up three-
pence in the shilling, 25 percent. According to the gas company owners,
about a million individuals “have transferred elsewhere their require-
ments of cooked food, hot water, warmth and light .. . One hundred
thousand street lamps went out and they have not been relit.” So says

Sir David Milne-Watson, the most powerful figure in Britain’s gas
industry.

This involves losses to the gas companies which they refuse to take,
So the class that gets stuck for everything has to shoulder the burden.
They not only have to pay increased prices for the Sas and juice they
use themselves, out of their meager wages, but also to provide the middle
class and the fat boys with kale enough to pay for what they use, for has
not Sir John Simon declared since outbreak of war that “Wages must
remain static, whatever happens to prices.”

Economies must be practised to win the War, but not by the dividend
takers — only by the wage-workers,

The Manchester Guardian of Nov. 7 quotes a Manifesto of the Gom-

“munist International, which Says, “In both belligerent and non-belliger-

ent countries the bourgeois dictatorship insolently robs the workers

by lengthening the working hours and raising the prices of necessities.”
How true!

$100 And did you notice the Picture of Mrs. Franklin D.
A Pl Roosevelt, Jr., and Mrs. Doris Cromwell, wife of

ate. the United States minister to Canada, the gold-
encrusted tobacco princess formerly known as Doris Duke. They were

Seated at a $100-a-plate dinner on Jackson Day, the annual Suzzle of the
Democratic party.

The price of that one meal to the tobacco princess would buy at least
400 good belt-tighteners for the hungry single unemployed. It is the

price of 20,000 tailor-made cigarettes of the kind sold by the founder of
the Duke fortunes.

It would be interesting to know how many $100-a-plate dinners were
eaten by old Tom Jefferson, the first great American Democrat,

iho Should 21, 1938, there is a picture of Bill Foster. Under-
€aa: neath is the caption: “William 4. Foster of the US

Communist party and three times presidential candidate, returned from

Europe on the Queen Mary. Reporters found him travelling tourist

class, asked him about Europe’s future. His answer, “War.” The re-

porters next put their stock question to a first-class traveller, Sir Charles

Higman, No. 1 British advertising man. His answer, “No war.’
Which of them was right?

In a copy of the American Magazine Life of Feb,

)\

Our Position On Finland

Public Meeting

SUNDAY, JAN. 21 - 2:00 P.M.

at the
CROATIAN EDUCATIONAL HOME
600 Campbell Avenue
A REPLY TO SUBVERSIVE AGITATION
AGAINST OUR ORGANIZATION
Auspices: Finnish Organization of Canada
Silver Collection

Local 55
S

4)