AMERICAN PROTEST

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 107, 2 November 1937, Page 9

AMERICAN PROTEST

JAPANESE ACTION

SEIZURE OF JUNKS

REGRETS EXPRESSED

(Received November 2, noon.)

SHANGHAI, November 1.

Brigadier Beaumont, the United States Gommander-in-Chief, strongly protested against the action of Japanese bluejackets who, it is alleged, crossed Soochow Creek from Chapei and seized a rice-laden Chinese junk manned by United States marines which was lying on the international settlement side of the creek, after driving off the crew by shots which afterwards proved to be blank cartridges.

The Japanese expressed regrets and promised that there would be no recurrence. ' '. .

The Japanese are holding on precariously to their positions across Soochow Creek. Engineers, under cover of smoke-screens, have constructed five pontoon bridges over which the troops are passing, covered by artillery and warplanes. The Royal Ulster Rifles have moved from the huts which constitute the Jessfield Barracks to quarters at the junction of Brennan and Yuyuan roads, in West Shanghai.

The Chinese Commander-in-Chief (General Chiang Kai-shek) has promoted all the officers and men of the "doomed" battalion by one rank.

Seven smartly-uniformed Chinese girls carried the "doomed" battalion's standards throughout its five-day siege in the warehouse at Chapei, running the gauntlet at dead of night with the survivors, who included youths of 15 and 16 years of age.

The Chinese commander, who was the 'last to leave, returned to rescue a few men who were left in the burning building. The party reached safety as the Japanese dashed into the ruins. One of the British posts fired on by the Japanese from ; 500 feet returned the fire with a Lewis gun in accordance with instructions.