TRAPPED IN CITY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11827, 7 January 1933, Page 5

TRAPPED IN CITY

SLAUGHTER AT SHANHAIQUAN,

QUIET NOW PREVAILS.

(U.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright.? (Received Jan. 6, 9 p.m.) SHANGHAI, Ja-n. 6.

Quiet continues in the recently disturbed area. Both sides expressed their willingness to negotate, .in an endeavour to localise the incident.

" ; Train-loads of wounded, pouring into Tientsin and Chingwangtrto, toll their own stories of tho terrific bombardment of Shanhaiquan. When tho hostilities began the gates of the walled city were closed, trapping 10,000 residents, but 5000 escaped when the gates were temporarily opened. How many of the remainder escaped death or injury is uncertain, though' the bodies lying amid tho blackened ruins indicate terrific slaughter. The Nanking Government has been inundated with manifestoes from the provinces and public bodies, demanding tho organisation of an armed expedition to drive the Japanese from Shanhaiquan. The Government has demanded the withdrawal of the Japanese from Shanhaiquan, in order to prevent similar incidents, and the punishment of the officers responsible for shelling the city.

“ON TUB ONE OF BAYONETS” .TAPAN HOTLY CENSURED “LEAGUE MUST ACT.” (U.P.A. by Elec. Tel, copyright' LONDON, JAN. 5 The Liberal papers and Hie Daily Herald continue to urge the Cabinet to take strong action in tho critical Sino-Japaneso situation. The Daily* Guardian, in a leader, says : “Japan is o throne on bayonets. Her army, drunk with power, thirsts for more. Japan has overstrained the patience of her closet friends, Ihe League of Nations cannot longer delay and must act. or face the consequences. ” JAP. TROOPS TO WITHDRAW. TALK OF CREATING NEUTRAL ZONE. / (F.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Jan. 7, 1.50 a.m.) TOKYO, Jan. 6. According to instructions from Tokyo, the Japanese troops are already withdrawing' from Sharthaikuan. To obviate a recurrence of hostilities it is considered necessary to create a neutral zone and enforce the revision of the Boxer protocol forbidding Chinese troops within two miles of the railway. DR. KOO’S COMMENT. f.\BF: STATED FOR CHINA. LONDON. Dec. 2-1. ■ Japan has struck in Manchuria, nor because of China’s weakness, hut because she fears China’s rapidlygrowing strength.” 80 said Dr. Wellington Ken, former Chinese. Foreign ’Minister, and now a member of the Court of International Arbitration at The Hague, io ihe Geneva correspondent of the Yorkshire Observer to-day.

China, he said, must consolidate her Government, hul it was nonsense to talk of chaos, as there was con crete evidence of her efforts to iostein the .situation. This included the budding of 35.00 miles of dykes 10ft high at'a cost of £5.000.000 and employing between 2,000,000 and 3.000.000 men, to prevent further floods in the Yangtse.

She had also balanced her Budget without borrowing abroad and moreover her currency had risen while the Japanese had fallen. History, he said, showed that Japan yielded when firmly confronted, owing to a fear of isolation and n desire, to keep her privileged international petition.

Tf the nations united in refusing to rocognnise Manehukno and at the same time placed an embargo on loans and munitions and withdrew the'” - Ambassadors from Tokio, Japan would assuredly accept the League solution based on the Lytton report.

PROVINCE IN PERIL. COCKPIT OF WARFARE. KOBE, Dec. £S. The peril of being the cockpit of warfare between Chinese and Japanese, troops threatens the Chinese province of Johol, which lies between the new Japanese protected republic oi Manclinkuo and the rest of China. Manehukno, it is asserted, wants to incorporate John-1, while China. expected to use the province as the basis of operations for the recovery of its oh] Manchurian territory. A Japanese communique states tnat the Nanking Government is preparing armaments and concentrating aeroplanes and armies in Jchol, while the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist organisation) is seeking to create Chinese unity in common hostility against Japan. The. communique further , charges Sun Fo, the son of Dr. Sun Vat-sen (“father of the Chinese Republic”), with prophesying a world war to frighten the Powers.

The newspapers here arc full moors about the warlike preparations of the Chinese in Jchol, and emphasise the necessity of nipping them in the bud.

Shanghai reports the concentrai'.ou of five Japanese-Manchukuo' division? on the Jehol border, numbering between 60,000 and 70,000 men.