NANKING IN WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 4, 6 January 1938, Page 9

NANKING IN WAR

CIVILIANS KEEP COOL

DEFENCE AGAINST RAIDS

While in . China my headquarters were at Nanking, and on my homeward journey from Western China I stayed in the capital for a few days, trying to get a passage via the States to England, writes J. Kanson-Lowe in "The Times." The Sino-Japanese war was going on in the north, pretty far away, but ,the papers were full of it, and one ■talked of nothing else. I arrived at Nanking on July 31, and except for the general excitement about the war things.seemed fairly normal. Cinemas were open, the shopping arcade near the Ta Hua cinema was crowded as usual, the traffic on the Chung Sh-ja thoroughfare was just as continuous. We enjoyed a picnic supper on Lotus Lake and golf at the pretty nine-hole course some way outside the ,city.In Government omces ' and at the universities, however, valuable documents, books, and instruments we.re being removed to places of safety". Dr. Wissmann -was daily. at Central Uni- | versity, seeing to the removal of survey and geographical material; at Nanking University physical apparatus was being put hurriedly into the basement. At the meteorological jbservatory the whole library and all the instruments were being removed, and of the Institute of Geological Research everything but the building was being sent to Kuling. BEGINNING OF WAR. Then the war began with startling suddenness at Shanghai. Bewildered Chinese crowded, the railway between that city and the capital, trying to find a place of safety. But the curious .fact was that the trains were just as crowded going one way as they were the other. On - August 15, speaking to a friend on the telephone, I heard that the first. Japanese air raid was expected. Early in the afternoon sirens in various parts of the city wailed the advance wapning, then the immediate warning. We ■ took cover in the commodious and reasonably comfortable dugout in the garden, together with the Chinese servants and their children. There wea considerable gunfire for a while. The Japanese aircraft flew high over tha city, and were attacked by Chinese pursuit aeroplanes. The whole. affair * did not last very long. The luncheon . party at the American Embassy .watched the raid from the verandah, assuming that the Japanese would not dare to attack their compound. A further attempted raid was made later in the day, and at 2 o'clock in the morning we were dragged from our beds by shrill sirens. This was the first, of the five raids and attempted raids made that day. We were astonished at *he excellence of the defence made, particularly as the Chinese had so few aeroplanes. The anti-aircraft guns were apparently inadequate because the Japanese flew too high, but the Chinese pursuit aeroplanes were amazingly successful; they, brought down a great many of the enemy and often prevent-ed-them from reaching the city. A CHANGED CITY. With the beginning of the air raids a marked change came over Nanking. Shop after shop put up its boards.. Cinemas were closed, the arcade shut down. The pavements were relatively deserted, but, curiously enough, there seemed to be just as many vehicles, and it was still difficult to get a-seat on a bus. Doubtless the citizens were very scared, but they did not show it. Order was perfect; the police were very well trained and insisted on people taking all the precautions outlined by the Government. The telephone system was working normally and so was the electric light; on the "immediate" warning , the latter was shut off. Every hour the latest news was broadcast from the American station at Shanghai, followed by dance music interspersed with' messages to foreigners who could not be reached by telegram. Thus there was an hourly rush for the hews, and time after time a warning would ring out just as the latest report from the Shanghai front was about to come through. It was impossible to concentrate upon work; life became a round of raids and dugouts, hastily-eaten meals, anxious glances at.the clock in impatience *or the next radio news and for the special news telegrams that were sent to the house. Down the Taiping Lv there passed great numbers of carts carrying the strangest assortment of home valuables —Chinese beds, birdcages, and all those small things that make home—on their way to safety in the countryside. At the telegraph stations a crowd strove all day long to send messages to friend 3 and relatives. THE TRAIN JOURNEY. \ I was due to be in London by the end of September, • and on August 21 Chen Hsien Sheng announced that there was a train for.Shanghai at'lo that night. Amazingly, it was possible to reserve three bunks. After a false raid alarm we got to the station and were surprised to find the train relatively empty. We.knew that it was a risk, but there was a certain thrill ,iii the thought that the gauntlet would have to be run outside Shanghai, quite apart from the possibility of trouble on the way. We slept well, however, and had an excellent breakfast on the train in the morning. It was not until we reached Lunghua, near the South Station at Shanghai, that a couple of Japanese seaplanes zoomed over the tiain. We could see them glinting in the sunshine. A moment later one of them made an almost ! vertical swoop, letting fall two bombs. It seemed as though they n.ust hit us. No shelter was possible; we simply hung out of the train window, watching. The bombs fell to the east of us, behind a farmhouse. One, apparently, did not explode; from the other there was a fountain of mud. There was dtsultory firing at the attackers and they fle\y east across the river. At the South Station (just six days later to be blown to pieces with hundreds of women and children refugees), shrapnel was falling, and it was a long time before we reached the French Concession and relative safety. ;