WAR IN SHANGHAI

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22853, 7 October 1937, Page 12

WAR IN SHANGHAI

CITY LIKE A FURNACE TERROR OF BOMBING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION AMERICAN. LADY'S. LETTERS A lively account of war in Shanghai from August 20, three days alter hostilities began, until September 4, is contained in letters written by a. Californian lady, Miss Ethel M. Gearon, to her sister, Mrs. Ronald A. McLean, of Mountain Road, Auckland. Miss Gearon was in Peking when the war broke out, and after a three days train journey to Chinwangtao, she embarked in a coastal steamer which eventually reached the mouth of the Yangtze. . "We had the Italian naval attache aboard our ship," she writes, "and while awaiting orders we steamed up alongside the Victoria, which was evacuating Italians, Germans and several other European nationalities, so the attache commandeered the lighter that had brought out refugees for that boat, and we were all taken aboaid it into Shanghai. It was only a very small boat, but we were glad to get it. Chinese, Germans. Italians and what-have-you —and myself, being the only white woman —all piled aboard it, and then the fun commenced. In a Lighter's Hold "A truce had been asked between the Japs and Chinese, that while they were removing refugees all firing should cease, but a little thing like a truce means nothing at all to them. lhe boat was flying the Italian flag, and there was a goodly number .of Fascists in their black shirts, white pants and black fez hats aboard, all of which gave the cosmopolitan passenger list rather a weird aspect. "Before we started we were told that the women and children would have to go down in the hatch on account of the firing, so I and the Russians and the Chinese women, with a million kids all talking and veiling at once, were sent into the dark hatch, and there we sat for one and a-half hours on our way up the river. They were firing from both sides with machine guns, and I could hear the rat-tat-tat of the bullets on the sides of the ship. Bombing of Large Hotel "All of a sudden the little boat shook with the vibration of a huge shot, which wasn't aimed at us, but we were just near enough to get the full benefit. The men on deck all lay flat, and as we were below and could see nothing—only use our imaginations—you can imagine the state of little Effie's nerves, which aren't any good in peace-time. After we had passed the danger spot we were allowed to come up, and oh boy! did a breath of fresh air feel grand and glorious? "When we arrived at the Bund there were literally thousands and thousands of Chinese crowding and milling about, really asking to be bombed. The city looked pretty awful from the three days' previous bombing. The poor Chinese were panicky and all business had ceased. Two days before we arrived a bomb had hit the Cathay Hotel, the best hotel in town, at which I had stayed for a week when I arrived here, and made a complete wreck of it. killing 20 people. One man sitting in his car in front of the hotel was decapitated by his windshield. Slaughter in Street "The same dav another t bomb dropped in one of the Chinese districts, which was terribly congested, and made a hole in the middle of the street big enough to throw a bungalow in, killing 1100 Chinese and completely shattering everything in the vicinity. We passed it all on our way. "To-day they have been bombing continuously since 5.30 this morning. It is now 9.30 p.m., and I can hear the planes swoop down every little while, dropping their deadly cargoes. One of the marines in the U.S.S. Augusta was killed yesterday and 18 wounded with shrapnel, and a hole caved in her side, so you can rest assured it is no play affair. "My room is on the top floor of the hotel, which I'm not too keen on, but the view of the city is wonderful, and I can see everything that is happening. The fires have extended now for miles, and at night the city looks like a huge furnace. Dairy Stock Killed

"One of the men in the hotel, who is head of a new model dairy here, said that they had imported about 400 pedigree cows. The Japs have bombed every inch of it, and it was one of the show places of its kind in Shanghai. Two hundred and fifty of the stock have been killed, and 35 more have had to be destroyed because of wounds. Why they should bomb a dairy four times is hard to understand.

"On Monday an appalling thing happened right in the busiest part of the shopping centre. A bomb of unknown origin struck two of the largest department stores, killing 175 and seriously wounding 580. As this is the International Settlement and these things aren't expected here, it has put fear into everyone's heart. They took the dead and wounded past the hotel just as we were eating lunch, and it was dreadful to hear the trucks and ambulances running all day with their sirens full open. A Musical Chinese

"Well, as I live and die! there is always a funny side to every situation. As I look out of my "window writing this, on the roof opposite is a Chinese in the corner practising his violin with all this hell about him. He's evidently one of the temperamental Mongols, and music eases his soul. More power to him! "The morning before I left, a bomb dropped half-a-block from the hotel, killing four and wounding mahv. A Navy woman and I, sitting knitting, saw them killed, and it wasn't a nice sight, I can assure you. From early morn till late at night the ambulances screamed past the hotel one after the other, until it was maddening. Bombers Fall in Flames "In tho afternoon of the same day 1 was packing my trunk in a closet when 1 heard some bombers overhead and ono of them diving in anticipation of a drop. Knowing what the morning had been, I thought we were scheduled for the afternoon, so I crawled further into the closet, frozen with fear and waited. 1 could hear the screaming of tho house coolies and the coolies on tho street. There was a loud explosion, and I ran out into the hall. A coolie pointed to the window, s nul 1 ran to see a plane in flames dashing down to earth. It struck, and tho bombs it was carrying exploded. It had not been bit by anti-aircraft guns, but something mechanically wrong had exploded the gasoline tank. Jt was a terrible sight. The planes that accompanied it flew away and did not complete their job, whatever it was." Having failed to get away by the President Hoover and other American refugee ships, Miss Gearon eventually obtained a passage to Kobe in the Japanese steamer Shanghai Maru. To embark she had to travel in a bus through the devastated western area occupied by the Japanese. "1 knew it would be terrible," she writes, "but I had no idea. Everything was laid flat, dead bodies and animals were lyimr about, and at one intersection a huge pile of bodies was being burned, which, after all, is the best way now. "All along the Wbangpoo there was nothing but desolation and destruction —everything laid waste and the Japs in possession. We were taking back some convalescent Japs to Kobe, and it was uncanny to see the supreme glee and joy with which they viewed their destruction."