Hell?

Seething with guerrilla warfare, Manchuria became Banditland in earnest last week. Civilian passenger and freight traffic was suspended on the Chinese Eastern, vital link in the railways that connect China with Europe. Among refugees pouring into Harbin, chief city on the Chinese Eastern, was Herr Kapitan Roland Strunk, grizzled veteran of the Imperial German Army.

"Gott im Himmel!" he growled. "Everywhere the people of Manchuria are expecting Hell to break loose. The Chinese forces obviously are under foreign direction [presumably Russian]. Japanese occupation of the Chinese Eastern Railway right up to the Soviet border is inevitable."

To direct the Japanese forces their Commander-in-Chief, doughty little General Shigeru Honjo who seized Manchuria in the first place (TIME, Sept. 28), hurried to Harbin. From this base three Japanese forces were advancing, nominally "to mop up the Chinese bandits." but all toward different points on the Soviet frontier.

Under General Nakamura troops had pushed down the Sungari River to within 30 miles of the Amur River which at that point is the frontier. Eastward from Harbin and westward from Harbin other Japanese columns advanced out along the arms of the Chinese Eastern, which touch Russian territory at each extremity. Mysteriously a Japanese troop train was blown up on the C. E. R., 40 Japanese killed, 100 wounded.

But Japan was by no means at war with Russia yet. A Soviet consular official, traveling in a special five-car train with Red Army guards, rumbled into Harbin, perhaps for a parley with General Honjo.

Just north of the city 4,000 Chinese soldiers, reputedly under General Ma, were routed by Japanese who took 500 Chinese prisoners, captured three Chinese armored cars, several pieces of artillery. Neutral observers agree that Manchuria's peasants, terrorized by Japanese soldiers and Chinese guerrillas, have cut down their spring sowing to a point which guarantees a poor crop, threatens famine.

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