色。
been very obvious that they have been holding their hand here
whatever the reason: even without indiscriminate bombing in
cities they could by continued air action not only make it almost impossible for the Government to function at all (we have ourselves experienced extreme difficulty of working in
the midst of air raid alams) but they could it seems to me
without much difficulty cut all communications between Manking
and Shanghai and between Ranking and the North. It is a matter of surprise to us that they have not already done so.
As regards assistance from abroad I think that Chinese have few delusions on the subject of the League and their
request for application of sanctions was rather a forlom
hope. They still hope that something ay occur to force
Russia to take direct action against Japan. Russia however
seems unlikely to do so except as a member of the League. To what extent she is a present or potential supplier of
armaments it is impossible to say. There are however
indications that she has been holding out hopes of indirect
assistance in the form of cupplies of aircraft and other military supplies in return for acceptance by China of certain political terms which would bind her more closely to Russia than recently signed Sino-Soviet Pact of Non-aggression. To what extent Russia is a present or potential supplier of
armaments it is difficult to ascertain, I question whether,
apart from aircraft, she is or ever will be on a large scale as question of transport between Russia and China is very difficult. In spite of reports regarding arrival of Soviet aeroplanes Donald still affirms not a single [? machine] has
been received from Russia. Nevertheless the sources of
these reports, which are several, are usually quite reliable and I am inclined to believe that negotiations for supply of
Russian
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