JAPAN-CHINA: Chahar

Over the line last week went 4,000 Japanese and Manchukuan troops assembled fortnight ago on the border between Manchukuan Jehol and Mongolian Chahar (TIME, Jan. 28). Striking quickly, with tanks, bombing planes, heavy artillery, the Japanese force swept aside frostbitten, ill-equipped Chinese irregulars along a 30-mile front, captured three towns. Estimated casualties 300.

Strangely both Nanking and Tokyo treated this latest incident with icy calm. After one day of flaming headlines, the Tokyo Press limited all descriptions of the fighting in Chahar to the barest of brief dispatches. Nanking, instead of...