300 KILLED AND 500 INJURED

Southland Times, Issue 23287, 25 August 1937, Page 5

300 KILLED AND 500 INJURED

BOMBS HIT BRITISH STORE

HAVOC IN INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT (United Press Assn. —Telegraph Copyright) (Received August 24, 6.30 p.m.) SHANGHAI, August 23. It is officially slated that 300 persons were killed and 500 were injured when two bombs struck the seven-story British departmental store known as Sincere’s. There was terrible havoc, with mangled bodies everywhere. All the windows within a radius of a mile were shattered. Ambulance, police troops, and boy scouts recovered the bodies and succoured the injured. Three hundred bodies have been conveyed to the morgue in 10 motor-lorries. A third shell struck the United States Navy warehouse. Fortunately it did not explode. The injured included Messrs Bellingham and Abend, two correspondents of The New York Times. An official of Sincere’s said that the disaster would have been worse had it not occurred during the luncheon spell. The authorities have established that it was an aerial bomb and not a shell which wrecked the stores. The Domei news agency (Tokyo), quotes a Japanese naval communication affirming that the disaster was caused by bombs from Chinese planes Officials of the Shanghai Municipal Council declare that the damage was caused by bombs and not by a shell. Vice-Admiral Hasegawa, commander of the Japanese naval forces at Shanghai, announced that no Japanese guns were firing at the time of the disaster.

AMERICAN APPEAL TO CHINA AND JAPAN

PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT URGED (Received August 24, 7.55 p.m.) WASHINGTON, August 23. The Secretary of State (Mr Cordell Hull) has formally appealed to China and Japan to refrain from resorting to war for a settlement of their differences. He has called attention to the American statement of July 16, pointing out that China and Japan were among the nations who expressed approval of it. In a statement which named no country but was obviously directed at China and Japan, Mr Hull said on July 16 that war in the Far East was impossible without encroaching on American and other Interests. It is understood that earlier in the day the Chinese Ambassador requested the United States to invoke the Nine-Power Treaty against Japan. Mr Hull reiterated the traditional American foreign policy, and concluded: "We avoid entering alliances or entangling commitments, but we believe in co-operative effort by peaceful means." The Washington correspondent of The New York Times said it was not believed that the United States would take direct action from the Chinese appeal under the Nine-Power Treaty at present.

BRITISH EVACUATION PLAN

JAPAN’S UNSYMPATHETIC

ATTITUDE

(British Official Wireless) RUGBY, August 23. The British Government is still without any reply from the Japanese and Chinese governments to the suggestion made for restoration of the situation in Shanghai. The reactions to the British proposals in semi-official circles in Tokyo appear to have been unsympathetic, which has caused disappointment here. On the Japanese side it has been strongly emphasized that Japan will not tolerate foreign intervention; but. it is pointed out that the British project does not in any sense imply intervention and is merely a request to both sides to withdraw from the area in which foreign interests are heavily involved.

In Nanking, although there has been no official reply, the reaction is understood to have been on the whole favourable, and this has been noted with satisfaction.

The spokesman of the Japanese Foreign Office said the British indemnification memorandum was under consideration. Japanese nationals had been withdrawn from central and southern China with the exception of a force at Tsingtao, where there were nine Japanese cotton mills. Chinese troops were reported to he closing in on Tsingtao. The proposals for a mutually agreed withdrawal of forces not in conflict from the Shanghai zone were made with a view to securing the isolation from warlike operations of the International Settlement, where many countries, and Britain in outstanding measure, have very large financial, commercial and industrial interests and where a large foreign population resides. DANGER OF DEATH The British authorities are providing protection for their nationals against attack, but so long as hostilities are actively pursued around the concessions there can be no assurance against accidental death or injury. The precaution is being taken, therefore, of evacuating the woman and children whose temporary absence will not cause great inconvenience. But the author of a story which has received some circulation —that there was a discussion of the evacuation of all British civilians from Shanghai—would seem to have overlooked the categorical statement by the Ministers after their meeting last Thursday that they had decided to take all possible measures to protect the safety of the British in the International Settlement and to protect British interests there. The Admiralty announces that British warships in Chinese waters are as follows: At Shanghai, the cruiser Danae and the escort vessel Falmouth; at Woosung, the flotilla leader Duncan, the destroyer Duchess, and the escort vessel Grimsby; at Butu Island, the cruisers Cumberland and Suffolk and the destroyer Delight; at Tsingtao, the aircraft carrier Eagle, and the destroyer Dainty; at Wei-hai-wei, the submarine depot ship Medway, the mine layer Adventurer, the destroyer Westcott, and the escort vessel Folkestone; at Chefoo, the destroyer Diana; at Chinwangzao, the destroyer Defender; at Taku, the escort vessel Sandwich; at Nanking, the cruiser Cape Town. The departure of the Third Destroyer Flotilla for the Far East has been cancelled. Thus three destroyer flotillas will continue to be stationed in the Mediterranean, being based on Malta.