INDO-CHINA POSITION

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 80, 1 October 1940, Page 6

INDO-CHINA POSITION

TORTURE OF FRENCH

TENSION IN HONGKEW

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

NEW YORK, September 30. A message from Hanoi states that French officers said that Japanese are inciting the natives in IndoChina against the whites. Eight French soldiers who were attempting to escape are reported to have been slowly bayoneted to death. The officers said that 140 French have escaped from the Japanese so far. Two officers reached Hanoi yesterday after a 75-mile walk in which they crossed and recrossed the Japanese lines. The Japanese are issuing pamphlets to the natives on the "New Order in Asia," warning them not to resist, while they are requiring Europeans to show Japanese passes, without which they are unable to walk in the streets of Haiphong. The Japanese representative, MajorGeneral Nishihara, and another ranking general, have returned from Haiphong, heading a mission of 55 persons, to confer with the Governor, Admiral Decoux, in order to clarify and implement the agreement to settle the question of the South China army's invasion. QUIET AT THE FRONT. A correspondent of the United Press of America made a trip to the front, 70 miles north-east of Hanoi, and found the situation quiet. Officers said there had been no firing for three days, except by roaming Japanese "guerrilla" bands, who were accused of torturing to death at least 30 Frenchmen. Shanghai reports that virtual martial law has been proclaimed in Hongkew and the Japanese-occupied portion of the International Settlement following an attempt by a Chinese gunman to assassinate a Japanese military officer jwho is reported to be seriously .injured by a bullet. The Japanese have increased the military street patrols in Hongkew and intensified the searching of all ingoing and outgoing persons. In Tokio the newspaper "Kokumin Shimbun" said that an Elder Statesman has advised the Premier, Prince Konoye, to convoke an extraordinary session of the Diet in order to demonstrate to the world that "Japan's hundred millions of people are unified behind the alliance of Japan, Germany, and Italy." The newspaper adds that the Government will start soon, a national movement to perfect defence. SHOOTING OF JAPANESE. i A Shanghai message states that thej Japanese have blocked all the exists of the Japanese-controlled area north of Soochow Creek leading to the International Settlement and have not permitted any Chinese to cross the bridges after a Japanese, believed to be an jarmy officer, was shot on the North Szechwan Road, the main thoroughfare in Hongkew. Also, troops have cordoned off a huge area and are conducting house-to-house searches, creating panic among the Chinese due to a fear of possible reprisals. It is reliably stated that another Japanese, who is believed to be a naval commander, has been fatally shot in another section of Hongkew. It is learned that the American navyhas issued orders forbidding the families of naval personnel to proceed to the Orient from the United States, though there is no evacuating of families here yet. AMERICAN PROTEST. It is authoritatively stated that ViceAdmiral Hart has protested to ViceAdmiral Hantaro Shimada against the action of Japanese gendarmes yesterday in seizing an American sailor who | was allegedly intoxicated and drag-J ging him to a gendarme office, where he was beaten before being released. It is very reliably stated that the gendarmes manhandled him in an effort to obtain the location of certain United States warships."

The belief that Britain will soon reopen the Burma Road to the passage of arms was expressed in Chungking by Dr. Yong Wenhao, Minister of Economic Affairs. He said that Britain must have realised that appeasement cannot change Japan's hostile attitude, as is proved by the alliance. The leading daily newspaper, the "Takungpao," says that the latest action of Japan releases Britain from whatever treaty obligations she might have to Japan.