REQUEST TO PARTIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 58, 6 September 1937, Page 9

REQUEST TO PARTIES

FOREIGN CONSULS WITHDRAWAL OF FORCES AT SHANGHAI , LONDON, September 5. The British, French, and United States Consuls and naval authorities at Shanghai.h,eld a conference yesterday. It is understood that the Japanese naval commander, Admiral Hasegawa, has since been invited to visit the American flagship. : The admirals and Consuls, after their conference, issued a joint Note requesting the Chinese to withdraw their troops a mile inland from Pootung, and also asking the Japanese to move their warships a mile downstream. The Chinese have referred the request to Nanking. ; . Meanwhile the Mayor of Shanghai points out that withdrawal is impossible unless the Japanese warships evacuate foreign areas which they are using as a military base. He also said that the Japanese were bombarding the Chinese from anchorages adjacent to the warships belonging to Britain, America, and France, which . should force the Japanese to depart. The Japanese spokesman , was similarly non-compliant, emphasising that Japan was merely using herjrwn area to defend Japanese lives and property The only solution was to drive all the armed Chinese from Shanghai, he said. The Rev. H. Smith, an American missionary, has arrived at Shanghai from Changshu. He asserts that more than 3000 inhabitants of Changshu are dead as a result of Japanese raids on August 23 and on Wednesday. The majority of the population of 100,000 has now fled.