Chaos and Cosmos

The Sino-Japanese war is one of the most important links in the development of the modern Far East. "A Dutch Spy in China offers a selection from the reports written by a Dutch colonel at the request of the General Staff of the Royal Netherlands Indies Army. After his retirement colonel De Fremery joined the group of Western military specialists who were helping Chiang Kai Shek in his efforts to modernize the Nationalist Chinese armed forces. Having acted in an advisory capacity for several years, De Fremery resigned but continued to live in China.Mounting anxiety in the East-Indies about Japan's military activity urged the authorities to collect as much information about the Japanese armed forces as possible. De Fremery's reports on the Sino-Japanese war were in this period a most welcome source of information.Contemporary reports on this conflict by militarily qualified Western observers are very rare. Colonel De Fremery's account of the struggle forms an important contribution to our knowledge of its military aspects.