MORE DISORDERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 304, 1 October 1940, Page 6

MORE DISORDERS.

THE TROUBLE IN SHANGHAI. VIRTUAL MARTIAL LAW. (United Press Association. —Copyright.! SHANGHAI, September 30. Virtual martial law has been proclaimed in Hongkew, the Japanese-oc-cupied portion of the International Settlement, after an attempt by a Chinese gunman to assassinate a Japanese mi itary officer who, it is reported, was seriously injured. The Japanese have i lncreased; military! street patrols in Hongkew, and have intensified the searching of all persons coming and going. . It is reliably reported that another Japanese, who is believed to be a navy commander, was fatally shot in another section of Hongkew. The Japanese have blocked all exits of the Japanese-controlled area north of Soochow creek, leading from the International Settlement. No Chinese are allowed to cross the bridges. Troops have cordoned a huge area and are conducting house-to-house searches, creating panic among tlie Chinese through fear of possible reprisals. It is learned that the United States Navy has issued orders forbidding American sailors and their families to go to the Orient from the United States, although there is yet no evacuation of families now here. It is authoritatively stated that Admiral Hart, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet, protested to Vice-Admiral Hantaro Shimada about the action of Japanese gendarmes yesterday, who seized an American sailor alleged to ho intoxicated and dragged him to tlio gendarme office, where he was beaten before he was released. It is reliably said that gendarmes manhandled him in an-effort to obtain the location of certain United States * warships.