Appalling Destruction in Shanghai

Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 February 1932, Page 7

Appalling Destruction in Shanghai

CHINESE SOLDIERS STICK GRIMLY TO DEFENCES. scholar-general leads trained army Received Sunday, 5.5 p.m. SHANGHAI, Feb. 6. The special correspondent of the Press Association writes: — Skirting the Settlement boundary and avoiding the Japanese lines escorted by an Americaneducated Chinese staff officer today I walked into Chinese territory in the wake of the Japanese wave of destruction, traversing a terrible graveyard of desolation.

Everywhere I glanced there was nothing but acres of blackened ruins of once prosperous shops and homes. The gaunt skeletons of charred buildings stare horribly at every angle, smoking ruins clutter the roadways and gaping shop fronts and crumbling walls tell the story of the terrific bombardment and fire which devastated an area of five square miles. Chapei is a ghostland and an appalling sight. Destruction of this character is not witnessed outside the earthquake zone. Untold millions are represented by thht terrible junk heap. The charred bodies of unrecognisable civilians lie rotting unburied in this no man’s land beyond which the Chinese soldiers are replying to the fire of the Japs’ firmly entrenched behind the ruins of the North railway station which is still the objective of aeroplane attacks and heavy Japanese bombardment. Broken sandbag emplacements cunningly hidden round corners indicate the opposition encountered when the Japanese entered Chapei at midnight, a week ago. I plodded through this sea of desolation to the Chinese lines where the advance forces of the Cantonese Nineteenth Route Army are stubbornly resisting the efforts to capture Chapei. There is no panic among these soldiers and their morale is high. There is unmistakeable discipline among these Germantrained Chinese. It is not their first time under fire as they have been engaged previously against other Chinese armies, bandits and Communists. Some are veterans of the 1927 campaign. A staff car carried me along the new Chunshan road towards Changju, where the commanderin chief General Tsai Ting Kai’s headquarters are located in a villa formerly' occupied by a wealthy family. A tall, slender figure appeared on the verandah and General Tsai Ting Kai was introduced. We entered reception room, the floor of which is covered with sahdbags below which is a cellar where the staff takes refuge when aeroplane bombing commences. General Tsai looks more like a scholar than the commander of an army of 45,000. Questioned, he said: “I am fighting for the defence of Shanghai against Japanese aggression and China is behind. I shall fight until there is not a single man in my army left. But please tell the world mine is not an offensive war. I am only on the defensive.” He declared his soldiers wsre accustomed to fighting and were not afraid of the Japanese who are merely drill-ground trained. “The Japanese don’t know the art of real fighting. Moreover, they are cowards! ’ ’ These remarks were translated as General Tsai cannot speak English. Tsai said he favoured the Powers’ proposals and welcomed the arrival of foreign troops whose presence was for the purpose of defending Shanghai against the Japanese.