CANTON TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23514, 31 May 1938, Page 11

CANTON TRAGEDY

GUY THRICE BOMBED MOUNTING DEATH ROLL SCENES OF DEVASTATION HUNDREDS BURIED IN RUINS WTIABLE PLIGHT OF REFUGEES ■.(United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) CANTON, May 30. (Received May 30, at 11.30 p.m.) For thfe third successive day, Canton was subject' to an aerial attack to-day. Twenty planes dropped about 40 bombs, mainly aimed at Government offices, but adjacent dwellings again suffered. The continuous anti-aircraft barrage endangered the foreign settlement at Shameen, which the raiders hitherto had avoided. Steamers bound for Hongkong had to sail early in order to escape the swarms of refugees pressing down to the quay-sides. The British United Press correspondent estimated that 300 persons were killed to-day, making the total 1300 for the three days. Search Among Ruins Weeping women are seen continuously, searching for relatives among the smouldering debris. The area of devastation included flimsy, poorer houses, which burned like tinder. Eight mansions of wealthy Chinese in the Tungshan district also were razed. The worst horrors were noticed on the riverfront, where thousands of terror-stricken people huddled in their wrecked homes or in riverboats. The gunboats Cicala and Seamen are en route to Canton from Hongkong to join the Moth and Marantala. ' : / A message from Hongkong states that the 750,000 refugees already there were added to during the weekend by 9000 from Canton and many from Amoy. Soon there will be 1,000,000 refugees to succour. The situation at Hongkong is most difficult owing to lack of accommodation and anxiety lest cholera and smallpox should break out. The task of inoculation is being hastened, and the authorities are considering closing the frontier. , Previous Day’s Attack The. Japanese bombed Canton yesterday, killing 250 and. injuring 450 people. The air raid casualties were then estimated at 1000 dead and 3000 injured. Flames devastated entire blocks of the city, and hundreds of residents are buried in the smouldering ruins. Two hundred British naval ratings entrained at Wongsha station, Canton, yesterday for Hankow. Forty minutes later 40 Japanese war planes bombed Canton, concentrating on the station and Chinese batteries on Honan Island. It is believed that ■the Japanese must have been aware that special trains were due to take the British ratings to Hankow when they bombed Canton for the first time on the previous day. JAPAN’S FAILURE ' THE GAMBLE IN CHINA t—" ” 1 DEFENDERS’ GUERILLA METHODS The Chinese Government has made no secret of its reliance upon guerilla warfare as an important factor in resisting the Japanese armies, and there is no’ doubt that it has been extensively employed, both in the northern and in the Yangtse theatres of hostilities, following the retreat of Chinese regular units, writes H. G. W. Woodhead from China to the Sydney Morning Herald. The Communist (Eighth) Army are supposed to be adepts at this form of fighting, and they have unquestionably harassed the Japanese forces in Shansi very seriously during the past few weeks. Japanese strategy has been peculiarly vulnerable- to this form of warfare. Mechanised and other Japanese units operating in independent columns have dashed down the Peking-Hankow, the Tientsin-Pu-kow, and the Taiyuan-Tungkwan lines at incredible speed, and without regard to the occupation and mopping up of intermediate territory. In several instances the rapidity of these advances has jeopardised large Chinese forces, which have—optimistically as it has proved—been described as isolated, or cut off. Though they have suffered very heavy casualties in consequence of some of these operations, the decisive blows which the Japanese sought to deliver have just failed of achievement, and the result has been that the advanced Japanese units, dependent upon restricted and precarious lines of communications, hav.e experienced great difficulty in concentrating sufficient reinforcements and supplies to continue to exploit their original drives. The Chinese irregulars’ attacks behind the Japanese right front in Shansi are now assuming serious dimensions. Continually Harassed The Japanese forces had driven the Chinese units opposed to them off the railway lines, and, in some instances, the more important highways. But no small percentage of the Chinese troops escaped by rapid withdrawals into the territory on either side of the Japanese line of advance, whence they have been in a position continuously to harass the numerically small garrisons that could be spared to protect the railway or highway, as the case might be. Guerilla activities have been reported within a few miles of Chefoo, of Tientsin, and of Peking, and. more recently, of Shanghai and other centres in the Yangtse theatre. Early in April the Japanese had razed all villages on both sides of the 10-kilometre highway between Sungkiang and Szekimg, some 20 miles south-west of Shanghai, in reprisal for the wrecking of a military truck and the massacre of its occupants. When a Government endorses guerilla warfare on its own soil it must be prepared for the consequences, which are liable to be very serious for the civilian population. Regular troops, wearing recognisable military uniforms, and operating under commanders responsible to their superiors, and for the conduct of their subordinates, are entitled to certain immunities in the

event of capture. But this is not the case with men who do not continuously wear uniform, and openly carry arms, i Most belligerents summarily execute men in civilian clothing caught in possession of or using firearms in an occupied area, and have taken the view that reprisals, which may extend to the civilian population, and include the burning of towns and villages, are justifiable as a means of securing observance of the [laws of war in the future.