RAID ON CANTON

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 2, 28 September 1937, Page 9

RAID ON CANTON

Bombs Fall On Railway Station BUILDINGS ABLAZE Japan Says Aerial Attacks Will Continue JUSTIFICATION CLAIMED By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. (Received September 27, 8.10 p.m.) Canton, September 27. Numerous bombers, flying amid a hail of anti-aircraft lire, raided Canton at 9.15 a.m. Three bombs landed on Wongslia railway station, which is the Canton-Hankow terminus. The station buildings are blazing furiously. Announcing that bombing of military objectives will be carried out despite the presence of non-combatants nearby, Rear-Admiral Honda, the Japanese Naval Attache at Shanghai, states that bombings under these conditions were accepted by The Hague Air Convention in 1923.

A Hong-Kong message states that the mayor of Canton has appealed to the great Powers to prevent Japanese conducting air raids on cities irrespective of military objectives. Owing to steady rain, the situation on the Shanghai front is unchanged. The Japanese army spokesman announced the concentration of forces and supplies on all fronts in preparation for a grand offensive. The Admiralty at Tokio announces that Japanese planes and warships bombarded Hoihow, on Hainan Island, damaging strong fortifications. Planes heavily bombed Chapei and raided Canton three times.

It is officially claimed that the Chinese War Office at Nanking was smashed to pieces during Saturday’s air raid.

Prince Hiroyoshi Fushimi. commander of the Japanese third destroyer flotilla, was slightly wounded aboard his ship in the Whangpoo River by Chinese snipers. Prince Fushimi is a member of the Imperial Family, but not of the reigning House. The Shanghai correspondent of “The Times” states that the official Japanese army casualties to September 21, excluding naval forces, were 112 killed and 4169 wounded, which is 10 per cent, of the total, assuming that the force engaged is 50,000. The Chinese still hold the Kiangwan salient. They are resisting the pressure on the entire Shanghai front and inflicting heavy .losses. BOMBING DENOUNCED English Suggestion To Stop Japan’s Trade London, September 26 Numerous pulpit and platform denunciations of Japanese butchery of the non-combatants included a suggestion by Mr. John Marchbank, secretary of the Railwaymen’s Union, that a message from King George in the name of the British people expressing horror and indignation at the bombings would influence the Emperor of Japan. Declaring that bombings must and can be etopped. Sir Frances Dyke Acland, in a letter to “The Tinies.” points out that over three-quarters of Japan’s

total trade is with Holland, the United 1 States arid the British Empire, whose heads are men of high civilisation, human, merciful, peace-loving, and possessing the same faith and ideology They could act in unison immediately, and stop Japan’s inward and outward trade within a week. That would stop massacres. There was no need to wait for the co-operation of dictators or the League of Nations. Three men acting together might change the course of world history. SHANGHAI’S FOREIGN TRADE Big Decline Recorded (Received September 27, 8.10 p.m.) Shanghai, September 27. The foreign trade of Shanghai declined CO per cent, in August as compared with July, and it is expected the September figures will show a decline of 90 per cent. This is due to the Japanese occupation of the Hongkew commercial area, the Chinese barricades of the Yangtse which have cut off inland trade, and Chinese measures to protect the currency.'