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the aim of the resistance of Hankow, which was to exhaust the powers of the enemy, has been attained, Hankow has lost its significance, all the more because following the fall of Canton the Canton-Hankow railway was cut.
"Actually, a large number of bases have been established at strategic points in the interior of the provinces of Honan, of Anhwei and Kiangsi and even in the interior of Hopei, Shan- tung, Manchuria, Chahar, Jehol, Suiyuan, Kiangsi and Chekiang and military plans had been fixed according to a strategy which had been adopted for a long war.
"From the strategic point of view China should not over- estimate the importance of a special base or centre and neglect the consolidation of her strength of national resistance on all fronts.
"The aim of the Japanese surrounding Hankow was to annihi- late the principal Chinese forces in the hope of thus rendering China impotent in her task of prolonged resistance and of bringing the war to a rapid conclusion.
"Consequently Chinese strategy has made it necessary for us not to neglect broader plans in order to save or defend a small centre or to give more importance to temporary reverses to the detriment of plans for the future.
"Although Hankow has fallen into Japanese hands the enemy has control over nothing but devastated country and a dead city.
"The real war has only just begun, by the launching of operations on all fronts. Japanese troops are already strug- gling in the mire and from now on they will march through even more difficult country.
"The Chinese retreat from Hankow must not be falsely in- terpreted as a military retreat but as a strategic movement to change a defensive war into an offensive war and as a pivot to change setbacks into victories.
"Further, during the sixteen months of war China has strictly adhered to the strategy which she planned for herself and which was based on the three following general principles: -
1). Prolonged resistance.
2). National resistance on all fronts.
3). A struggle to maintain initiative during operations. These principles are essential factors for obtaining a final victory.
"At the outbreak of war, knowing that a supreme sacrifice would have to be made, the Chinese Government immediately began to build western China as a principal basis for a prolonged war.
"I have already told you that a war of resistance was not a matter of six months or a year, and that once war had started
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