JAPAN-CHINA: Private Slice

In the precarious hush of the truce between Japan and the Nanking Government (TIME, June 5), a small, discordant clamor was heard last week far to the north in Chahar Province. It was the private war of "Christian General" Feng Yuhsiang, ostensibly to drive the Japanese single-handed out of China's "lost provinces."

As other Chinese generals bickered about demobilizing their huge idle armies. Opportunist Feng saw a chance to carve out a little State of his own. Last fortnight he sent his well-paid, well-drilled troops against the walls of Dolonor in southeast Chahar, held by Manchukuan irregulars and two brigades of Japanese regulars. Four times they were thrown back, once demoralized by bombs from seven Japanese planes. Last week, on the fifth assault, Feng's men made a breach in the walls, swept the Manchukuan and Japanese troops across the city and out the east gate. Japanese, unfamiliar with victorious Chinese, charged the city garrison's general with having sold out.