VIVID STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 271, 15 November 1937, Page 8

VIVID STORY.

BARBAROUS SCENES.

TO-DAY'S WARFARE TACTICS.

TERROR OF MOTHERS.

"Cannot the Christian people of X ew Zealand do something to make this sort of barbarity impossible—to-day in China and to-morrow in New Zealand!" This was a strong appeal from the mission field in China, contained in a letter read to the Presbyterian Assembly to-dav It was from the Rev. G. H.* McVeur written at Kong Chuen, Canton on October 20. ' *

Mr. McNeur told a vivid story. When he wrote the mission's annual report over six months previously he had said it seemed that China's growing spirit of unity and independence was'haltin" Japan's programme of aggression. That statement quite evidently expressed vain hope. Bombers'' Daily Invasion. "For some weeks now this province has almost daily been invaded by Japanese, Bombing 'planes, and we have been able to share in a small measure the suffering and anxiety of the people it is our privilege to serve," said Mr McNeur. "But the depredations of the enemy in South China hai»e been slight when compared with the fearful carnage and destruction in and around Shan Mil i and in North Ch.na." °

Speaking of the apparently heedless slaughter of non-combatants and the seeming carelessness that had destroyed cultural and civic institutions and national monuments instead of military objectives, he declared the world had to realise that these were the deliberate tactics of modern warfare, and that the terrorising of the whole community and the dislocation of its social and economic life were considered legitimate and effective military objectives. "For example, when Japanese 'planes made their third unsuccessful attempt to bomb the railway bridge le%s than a mile distant from our home at Kon» Chuen, au airman saw a ferry boat" with passengers, crossing the river at Ko T'ong market. He released a bomb which missed the ferry but fell anion* some cargo boats anchored by the shore! A boatman and three children were killed. The youngest child—a babe on his mother's breast —was blown to pieces. Mothers and Their Children. "What is the result? Every mother who can get heff children away wishes to, to seek some temporary shelter in a village further from the railwav. When the gong sounds that sinister alarm they clutch their little ones and fly to the surrounding hills or some, convenient dug-out, a fearful dread chilling their hearts until the 'all clear* signal is heard.

"Most of the shops on the long market street are closed. The regular market day—an institution of many generations—has been suspended for the duration.' And by such methods, over as wide an area as possible, Japan hopes to force an early settlement which will leave her mistress of China's destiny."