OUTRAGES AT NANKING

Evening Star, Issue 19550, 7 May 1927, Page 22

OUTRAGES AT NANKING

EYE-WITHESS'S STORIES [Fsou Oue Special Correspondent.] SAN FRANCISCO, Alarch 31. John D. Wilson, son of E. L. Wilson, general manager of the Rnmford Chemical Works, Rnmford, Rhode Island, shared tho perils of Henry O. Warren of Olin. North Carolina, and Dennie D. Taylor, of Lincoln, California, as they signalled tho warships in the Yangtse during the memorable attack on Socony Hill, in Nanking. Wilson, who stands six feet one inch, told of his adventures with the two men of the William B. Preston and pthers of the landing party. He said that during the Wednesday night they kept up a vigil on Socony Hill, but only on Thursday morning did they have an intimation of the hostility of tho Chinese soldiers. “A machine gun placed on a hill 200 yards away,” ho went on, “fired on our position and wo ducked. A little later word came that looting had begun. Then we saw the refugee party coming with Consul Davis at the head with' tho Stars and Stripes. At noon four others and I walked a short distance from Socony House for chow (food). Returning, we were stopped by Nationalist troops. Our arras had boon taken away earlier on Davis’s orders, so as not to incite tho Nationalists. Tho soldiers demanded money. One little devil stuck a rifle ribs and I thought tho end had come. I gave tho leader all the change I had, after which ho kept tho others from bothering nie. “This bunch were just kids—all under twenty except tho leader—but they were armed to the teeth, much better than the northern soldiers. Wo finally got away when our money was gone. The soldiers then began looting Socony House and made a clean job. We were still unarmed and helpless. Wo could have cleaned out a whole lot of them with our automatic pistols.” As foi the final tense moments, Wilson described them as “ not so bad,” adding: “The Consul ordered us to resume arms, which we gladly did. We returned tho fire, and I know I nicked off seven. Then, on Davis’s orders, Ae gave tho ‘ Begin firing ’ signal from the verandah and roof, and soon tho shells from the warships came down, tho Noa’s arriving first.” A graphic description of the mistreatment of Japanese in Nanking was also given by a correspondent who related that on the Thursday morning ho was awakened by bullets pattering through the window panes of his room in the Horni-Kwan Hotel in Nanking. Shortly afterward forty Chinese soldiers or moro invaded the hotel and robbed him of his belongings. Tho looters tried to _ snatch a ring from the hand of a maid in the hotel, but found it tight, so they tried to cut off .the finger. They threatened to shoot all Japanese guests of tho hotel, but were restrained when a superior officer arrived. The correspondent added that ho wont to tho Japanese Consulate, where he saw more looting, in which men and woman were stripped of all their clothing. Aloro than 100 Chinese soldiers swarmed into the Consulate and attacked tho staff with bayonets and rifle butts, demanding money. When told there was no money they brutally wounded and finally killed Alajor Nemoto, and threw his body out of a window.

Ono Japanese official refugee, arriving at Shanghai, said armed women Communists led lawless Nationalist soldiers in the looting of the Japanese Consulate at Nanking. He said the looting was conducted deliberately and systematically, apparently carrying out a pre-arranged plan. “There is no doubt,” ho said, “that Communists, co-operating with part of the Southern troops, deliberately carried out the looting with the object of creating anti-foreign feeling.”