While American attention has been riveted upon the common European scene and, to a lesser extent, upon the Pan-American peace efforts, some fire-crackers have been competing unsuccessfully in the din. Yet they are worth noticing, for almost any one of them may be linked in series with a world-shaking bomb.

To the diligent reader, Chinese "news" is completely unsatisfactory. Always censored, always violently propagandistic, it reenforces a feeling of helplessness and drives him, unwillingly, into a kind of despairing fatalism. The United States has, however, as much concern for the facts, needs to be forwarned just as much in the East as in the West.

Some few facts, nevertheless, have become transparently evident. First, and probably less important, there have been renewed clashes on the Manchurian border since the signing of the Japanese-German military alliance. The second, concerning Suiyan Province, is pregnant with significance.

Mongol "irregulars", supported semi-covertly by Japanese planes and arms are attempting to wrest Suiyan Province from Chinese control. Suiyan, although only loosely attached to China in a military and political sense, is directly in the path of communication between Soviet-dominated Outer Mongolia and China. The intent seems clear; the Japanese are bent upon extending their pincerlike grasp on China.

Foreign Minister Litvinoy of Russia has shown himself fully cognizant of the Japanese moves and, very recently, breather words of fire against the Soviet's enemies. At the same time, it seems unlikely that Japan can do anything but assume a more aggressive role. An inspection of the world's "post-war diplomacy" reveals strong alliances between Japan and Germany, Russia and France, and thence, more tenuous "understandings" with other European countries. It is most unpleasant to contemplate, but it is necessary to realize that Japan has once again set her war machine in motion.