MANCHURIA: 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...