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400 WINDOWS BROKEN

Bombing 'Near Chinese Hospital MISSIONARY’S EXPERIENCE A graphic description of an air raid in which the Presbyterian Mission Hospital at Canton was involved, 400 panes of glass being broken, 40 ceilings collapsed and all doors and windows forced oil their hinges was given by the Rev. H. Davies, a missionary on furlough from China in a talk to the Presbyterian Bible classes of the Hutt Valley and Eastbourne at Dower Hutt. . The headquarters of the Presbyterian Mission were 12 miles from Canton, the centre of war activities, and this fact played great havoc with missionary enterprise in that area, said Mr. Davies. The railway line w’as the life-line of China, and the Chinese army was dependent for a large proportion of its supplies on the Canton-Hankow line. The barbedwire fence of the mission compound was only 180 yards from the railway and, as the Japanese were constantly bombing in the vicinity in an effort to cut off the food supply of the Chinese army, the position was not an enviable one. The compound consisted of a hospital, an administrative block, residences, a girls school and a large hall for workers’ meetings. There was never an interval of more than a few days without an air raid; sometimes there were several raids in a day. The warning siren sounded three times, increasing in violence each time. Death inevitably followed in the wake of the raids. Drivers of trains and buses had learnt to be exceedingly wary. With the approach of a bombing plane an engine driver would frequently uncouple the carriages and run the engine near, the hospital, hoping there to escape injury. The result was that bombing sometimes occurred 20 yards from the wall of the hospital. On one such occasion 400 panes of "lass were broken, 40 ceilings collapsed , and all the doors and windows were forced off their hinges. However, none of the inmates was hurt. When such bombings occurred, there was a big exodus of patients, who would stay away a few days. All this made it most difficult to carry on the work. . Missionaries, in the course of their evangelistic work, frequently travelled by bus and river boats which Japanese planes often machine-gunned, their excuse being that there might be soldiers aboard. He was deeply impressed with the wonderful spirit of the Chinese Christians and their lack of enmity toward the Japanese. Mr. A. Anderson presided at the meeting, and the Rev. J. Lopdell thanked Mr. Davies for his address.

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19380910.2.140.1

Bibliographic details

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 296, 10 September 1938, Page 16

Word Count
417

400 WINDOWS BROKEN Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 296, 10 September 1938, Page 16

400 WINDOWS BROKEN Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 296, 10 September 1938, Page 16

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