—75—
new general attack on November 18th. General Ma Chan-shan's troops retreated, first to Tsitsihar, which was taken by the Japanese on November 19th, and then to Hailun, to which place the administrative offices of the Government were removed.
According to the evidence of Japanese Generals commanding on the spot, the new operations did not begin before November 12th. General Ma Chan-shan at that time had gathered about 20,000 of his troops to the west of Sanchienfang, and even sent for the land colonisation troops in Heilungkiang Province and the forces of General Ting Chao. Against these large forces, which showed an increasingly threatening attitude, the Japanese could oppose only the now concentrated division of General Tamon, consisting of two brigades under Generals Amano and Hasabe. In order to relieve this tense situation, General Honjo demanded, on November 12th, that all Heilungkiang troops should retire to the north of Tsitsihar and that his troops should be allowed to proceed northward for the protection of the Taonan-Angangchi Railway. The advance did not begin before November 17th, when the Chinese sent cavalry troops around the right flank of the Japanese and attacked them. General Tamon informed the Commission that, in spite of his small strength of 3,000 infantrymen and 24 field-guns, he ventured to attack the Chinese forces and completely defeated them on November 18th, with the result that Tsitsihar was occupied on the morning of the 19th. One week later, the 2nd Division returned to its original quarters, leaving General Amano with one infantry regiment and one battery of artillery at Tsitsihar to hold the place against General Ma Chan-shan's troops. This small Japanese force was subsequently reinforced by the newly-formed "Manchukuo" troops, but these new troops, at the time of our visit to Tsitsihar in May 1932, were not yet considered capable of fighting the forces of General Ma Chan-shan.
(See Map No. 7)The attached Map No. 7 (Military Situation Chart) shows the distribution of regular troops of both sides at the time of the first resolution of the Council. No account is taken of disbanded soldiers and bandit groups which, at that time, specially infested the areas east and west of the Liao River and the Chientao district. Both the parties have accused each other of purposely instigating banditry—the Japanese attributing to the Chinese the motive of wishing to create disorder in the lost parts of Manchuria, and the Chinese suspecting the Japanese of wishing to find pretexts for occupying the country and still further extending their military operations. The strength and military value of these gangs are so vague and changeable that it would not be possible to insert an accurate estimate of their significance into the picture of the military situation. The chart shows that the Command of the North-Eastern troops had succeeded in organising a force of considerable strength in the south-western part of Liaoning Province. These troops had been able to construct a strongly entrenched position on the right bank of the Taling River very close to the foremost Japanese outposts. Such a situation may well have caused the Japanese military authorities some anxiety, as they estimated the total strength of these regular troops at 35,000 men, or about double the total admitted strength of their own forces in Manchuria at that moment.
The Tientsin incident.This situation was relieved by action taken in consequence of certain events which occurred at Tientsin during the month of November. Reports as to the origin of the trouble differ widely. There were two outbreaks, on November 8th and 26th, respectively, but the whole affair is extremely obscure.
Outbreak of November 8th: Japanese version.According to the Japanese account in the Herald of Asia, the Chinese population at Tientsin was divided between those who supported and those who opposed Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang, and the latter organised forces to create a political demonstration in the Chinese city by attacking the guardians of public order on November 8th. In this dispute between