JAPANESE CONSUL’S STORY

Evening Star, Issue 19520, 30 March 1927, Page 6

JAPANESE CONSUL’S STORY

THE WOHK OF BOLSHEVISTS

THE CHANGSHA INCIDENT,

SHANGHAI, March 29. (Received March 30, at 9.25 a.ra.)

The Japanese Consul at Nanking, interviewed, declared that the most noteworthy feature of the looting of Nanking was the deliberate systematic manner in which it-was carried out, according to an obviously pre-arranged plan. Ho stated that armed women Communists led lawless Nationalist soldiers to the Japanese Consulate. Piecing together reports from various quarters, there was no doubt that Communists, co-operating with a part of the Southern troops, deliberately carried out the looting with the object of creating antiforeign feeling. Lawless soldiers with one accord shouted “ Down with the Imperialists. -

The Consul suggested that the Com* munists carefully investigated th* situation of the foreign Consulates and residences beforehand. He expressed himself aghast at the impudence of the Kuomiutang propagandists in trying to lay the blame on the routed Northerners. This excuse might do very well at Shanghai, but it would certainly not go down at Nanking. He himself had- a narrow escape, as he was ill in bed when the Southerners fired a shot, which passed between him and his wife, who endeavored to shield him .with her body. Following on a slight encounter between a party from the warship Woodcock and the Chinese at Changsha, the local Commissioner of Foreign Affairs demanded the withdrawal of the Bri* tish vessel from the port and the handing over of the British sailors involved in the incident, in order to enable the Chinese to take drastic action against them. | It is also reported that the Commissioner has withdrawn extra-territorial rights from all Britishers in Changsha, and the British authorities are evacuating their nationals in consequence.