DEATH ON TRAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22820, 30 August 1937, Page 9

DEATH ON TRAIN

SOVIET_OFFICIAL RUMOURS OF PLOT JAPANESE CONSULATES REQUEST FOR CLOSURE (Received August 29, 5.5 p.m.) MOSCOW, August 28 Marshal Demid, Commissar of Defence in Outer Mongolia, died suddenly from poisoning while on a train for Tomsk, en route to Moscow. There are persistent rumours that he was the victim of a plot. The Soviet Government has requested Japan to close its Consulates at Odessa and Novo Sibirsk. Novo Sibirsk is about 400 miles on the Soviet side of the border of Mongolia and at the junction of the Vladivostok railway and the line which passes south and west from the junction and follows the Soviet frontier.. Odessa is the important seaport on the Black Sea. Tomsk is about 150 miles from Novo Sibirsk. UNITED STATES APPEAL CHINA WILLING FOR PEACE JAPANESE REMAIN SILENT (Received August 29, 7.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, August 28 The Chinese Embassy has formally accepted the statement made by the United States Secretary of State, Mr.

Cordell Hull, appealing against a resort to war, and reiterated willingness for peace. The Japanese authorities have maintained silence. ATTACK ON NANKING MANY CIVILIANS KILLED NORTHERN SECTOR FIGHTING LONDON, August 27 In a Japanese air raid on Nanking 500 people were killed and wounded, mostly civilians. The raiders destroyed 200 houses in the poorer part of the town, where at least 150 people of both sexes and of all ages were killed. A Shanghai message says foreign diplomats asked that Japanese aeroplanes should not attack non-military positions at Nanking. The United States Consulate lodged three protests against Japanese attacks on American property, which was bombed and machine-gunned, although no Chinese

were in the vicinity. Fanslian, six miles south-west of Changsientien, wJiere the .Japanese, who are steadily rolling up the Chinese retreating from Kalgan and Nankow Pass, have their headquarters, was the scene of a desperate conflict. Six thousand Japanese attacked the embattled Chinese who were in strong positions and reported to be maintaining an impervious defensive. A message from Nanking claims that Kalgan has not fallen. It states that Shansi reinforcements arrived just in time to frustrate the Japanese. MENACE FROM AIR BUSINESS MEN CONCERNED (Received August 20 7.5 p.m.* SHANGHAI, August 29

The British and American chambers of commerce in Shanghai have urged their respective Governments to seek the cessation of flights by Chinese and Japanese aeroplanes over the International Settlement, as they jeopardise life and property. PORT OF SHANTUNG JAPANESE EVACUATED (Received August 20, 7.5 p.m.) SHANGHAI, August 20 The evacuation of male Japanese civilians from Tsingtao, the port of Shantung, suggests that that province will next be drawn into the war zone.