SHANGHAI FIGHTING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 67, 18 February 1932, Page 7

SHANGHAI FIGHTING

SHELLS IN SETTLEMENT. EXTENSIVE DAMAGE. BRITAIN’S STRONG PROTEST. (United Press Association.—By Electrio Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received February 18, 8.35 a.m. SHANGHAI, Feb. 17. During the usual nightly bombardment, shells fell in the dock district of the International Settlement, seriously wounding two British sailors and damaging wharves, pontoons, and British property. There were eight Chinese killed and over a score injured. The damage within the Settlement was extensive in the vicinity of Cliapei and Kiangwan. Buildings were wrecked, and foreign houses and a foreign factory were badly damaged. Two popular cafes and a Japanese theatre were hit in the northern district, the Chinese apparently directing their fire toward a Japanese battery located behind the Shanghai Council’s Hongkew park, but the marksmanship was extremely poor. It is believed that the shells which fell on the waterfront were intended fox 1 Japanese transports lying in the vicinity of the Hongkew wharf. The British authorities have lodged a strong protest. HEAVY REINFORCEMENTS. CHINESE RESISTANCE. FAILURE OF PEACE EFFORTS. SHANGHAI, Feb .17. Despite the combined efforts of the British, American, French and Italian Ministers to persuade the Chinese-to withdraw in accordance with the wishes of Japan, as a preliminary step toward peace, there is little' prospect of the Chineso agreeing. Heavy reinforcements are arriving daily and the lines are being strengthened with a wide system of trenchwork radiating through Chapei. The London Times’s correspondent at Shanghai says: “The situation entails tragedy to China whatever happens. The Chinese intend to withstand the invaders to the utmost. The Japanese, chargrine<l at their failures, are determined to vindicate their military reputation and should eventually be able to crash their way to their objective, becauso they can be reinforced indefinitely. They must finally win. “The more the Chinese fight the more the Japanese can reinforce, and the more it costs Japan to win the harsher can be the ultimate terms of settlement.” APPEAL TO JAPAN. LEAGUE’S NOTE. RESPONSIBILITIES STRESSED. (British Official Wireless). Received February 18, 11 a.m. RUGBI Feb. 17. The Far Eastern situation was the subject of several questions addressed to the Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, in the House of Commons. Replying to Mr George Lansbury, Sir John said that the League Council, other than the Chinese and Japanese representatives, had addressed a Note in the nature of an appeal to Japan. It was pointed out to both parties that “good relations between States can only be secured by co-operation and mutual respect, and that no permanent solution can be achieved by force, whether military or merely economic. The longer tbe present situation continues the wider the breach between the two peoples will become, and the more, difficult the situation will be, with all the disaster that it will mean not only to the two nations directly involved, but also to the world in general.

“The twelve members of the Council, other than the Chinese and Japanese representatives, feel constrained to make a pressing appeal to the Government of Japan to recognise its very special responsibility for forbearance and restraint, which fall upon it in the present conflict in virtue of the position of Japan as a member of the League of Nations and a permanent member of its Council.

“The situation which has developed in the Far East during the past months will be fully studied by the commission appointed with the consent of both parties, but since the commission was Eet up there has occurred, and still is occurring, events' in Shanghai which have intensfied pubic anxiety throughout the world—events _ which endanger the lives and the interests of the nationals of numerous countries and add to the unexampled difficulties with which the whole world is faced in the present crisis, and threaten to throw new and serious obstacles in the path of the Disarmament Conference. “Tlie twelve'members of the Council are far from discounting the grievances advanced by Japan, and throughout all these months have given her full confidence, which they owe*! to an associate of long standing, who has ever been punctilious in the fulfilment of all her obligations and duties as a member of the community of nations. They cannot but regret, however, that she has not found it possible to make full uso of the methods of peaceful settlement provided in the Covenant, and recall once again the solemn undertaking of the Pact of Paris that a solution of international disputes shall never be sought by other than peaceful means.

“They cannot but recognise 1 that from the beginning of the conflict which is taking place on her territory that China has put lier case in tbe hands of the League and lias agreed to accept its proposals for a peaceful settlement.”

The twelve members of the Council recall the terms of Article 10 of the Covenant, by which all members of the League have undertaken to respect and preserve the territorial integrity and political independence of all the members of the League. It is their friendly right to direct attention to this provision, particularly as it appears to them to follow that no evasion of territorial integrity and no change in political independence of any member of the League, brought about in disregard of this Article, ought to be recognised as vnlid and effectual by members of the League. “Japan has an incalculable responsibility before the public opinion of the world to be iust and restrained in her relations with China. She has already acknowledged this responsibility in the most solemn terms by becoming one of the signatories of the Nine Power Treaty, whereby the contracting Powers expressly agreed to respect the independence, and the territorial, and administrative integrity of China.

“The twelve members of the Council appeal to Japan’s high sense of honour to recognise, the obligations of her special position and the confidence which tne nations placed in her as a

partner in the organisation fo'r_, the ifcaintenance-of peace.” “QUESTION MUST BE CLEARED UP.” MR WINSTOITcHURCHILL’S VIEWS. Received February 18, 9.15 a.m. WASHNIGTON, Feb. 17. In an interview with Canadian correspondents, Mr Winston Churchill stated relativo to the position in the Far East that he thought it would be difficult for the Japanese to stop before obtaining a decisive victory. If the situation were left as it is - there would. be a recurrence of Chinese Nationalism directed against all foreign Powers. He thought that the question must be cleared up. SPECIAL ASSEMBLY MEETING. JAPAN’S OBJECTION. Received February 18, 10.35 a.m. GENEVA, Feb. 17. Japan objects to the convocation of a special meeting of the League Assembly, in accordance with China's application, on the grounds of illegality and because the application is conditional, and Japan had not yet agreed to dealing with it under .Article 15. Mr Yen’s letter did not definitely request a special session. The President of the Council is consulting legal experts before replying. JAPANESE AGGRESSION. DANGER TO EMPIRE OUTPOSTS. QUESTION IN~THE COMMONS, Received Februarv 18, 10.20 a.m. LONDON, Feb. 17. In the House of Commons, a member asked Sir John Simon: Will you bear in mind the grave danger of Australia and other parts of the Empire if the Japanese aggression is not stopped ? Sir John Simon replied: I have not forgotten Australia. EXPORTS OF ARMS. LICENSES GRANTED IN BRITAIN. QUESTIONS hTtHE COMMONS. Received February 18, 12.30 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 17. In the House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, told Mr Mander that the Government did not propose to consider inviting the Council of the League of Nations to put into force Article 16 of the Covenant —for the withdrawal of ambassadors and the establishment of a blockade of the Japanese seaboard. “The Government regard it most improper to judge a matter which is coming up for judicial consideration before the League of Nations, of which Britain is a member,” Sir John added. Major Colville, Secretary to the Department of Overseas Trade, informed Mr Tom Williams that licenses had been granted recently for the exuort of armaments to Japan. Mr Harris: Is it not undesirable to continue these exports which are encouraging war ? Mr Maxton: Will the Chinese have equal facilities of purchasing armaments?

Major Colville: Licenses hitherto have not been withheld in either case.

Sir John Simon, replying to further questions, said Britain would 'continue to act in the Far East in conjunction with the League and the United States.

Mr Maxton: Is the League doing anything effective? Sir John: It is doing its best.

DEATH OF NAVAL RATINGS,

(British Official Wireless). f Received February 18, 11 a.m. RUGBY, Feb. 17. The Admiralty has received a report from the Commander-in-Cliief in China that at five o’clock this local time, two naval ratings of H.’M.S. Suffolk, H. H. Frnncis, of Chatham, and H. G. Prior, of Portsmouth, who were part of a guard on duty at the Hongkew wharf at Shanghai, were seriously injured by Chinese shell fire. Both died later in the day.