VICTORY BY BOMBING CIVILIANS?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 134, 9 June 1938, Page 6

VICTORY BY BOMBING CIVILIANS?

The statement attributed to a Japanese spokesman in Shanghai, that the air raids on Canton and Hankow will be continued, with even greater vigour, "in order to make'the Chinese realise how futile it is to resist," is only too likely to be correct. One main objective of the Japanese is to make an end of the National Government, shatter the military forces supporting it and establish in authority a Government which will "co-operate" with Tokyo and, especially, the Japanese Army. This has proved a more difficult task than the Japanese calculated. Ten months have passed since fighting began, and despite sweeping military victories and the economic blockade (the tightening of which is probablj' the main purpose of the new southern offensive), the Japanese have not conquered, and recent reports suggest the possibility that they ai'e, in the military sense, over-extended. In these circumstances the possibility of shortening the war by smashing the morale of the population in the main centres of .government would not be disregarded. If this is the motive of the repeated air attacks, then Japanese protestations that they are concentrating on military objectives are valueless.