CHINA'S PLEA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23146, 19 September 1938, Page 12

CHINA'S PLEA

JAPAN INDICTED REPORTS TO LEAGUE GRAVE ALLEGATIONS SANCTIONS REQUESTED By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received September IS, p.m.) GENEVA, Sept. 17 The Chinese delegate to the League of Nations, Dr. Wellington Koo, has called upon it to apply economic sanctions against Japan. Dr. Koo demanded the immediate application of Article XVI., an embargo on raw materials and credits, against Japan, and financial and material aid to China.

The representative of China asked the League to send a commission to his country as a preliminary to measures to deter Japan from using poison gas and from bombing indiscriminately. Dr. Koo informed the League that 1,000,000 Chinese had been killed and 30,000,000 were homeless and destitute. The damage caused in the course of the campaign could not be computed. There were over 1,000,000 Japanese troops in China with 500 first-line aeroplanes.

Continuing, Dr. Koo asserted that 10,182 Chinese civilians had been killed and 13,309 wounded in the course of 220-1 Japanese air raids between August and March, while 92,087 buildings had been destroyed. In air raids since March between 5000 and 6000 civilians had been killed in various towns. His charges aguinst tiie Japanese included widespread massacre and rape. A message from Nanking says the International Belief Commission estimates that violence on the part of Japanese soldiers has resulted in 5400 deaths.