SIX PLANES USE MACHINE-GUNS

Southland Times, Issue 23330, 14 October 1937, Page 5

SIX PLANES USE MACHINE-GUNS

Occupants Of Cars Not Injured UNION JACKS PLAINLY DISPLAYED ♦United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received October 13, 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, October 12. Six planes, allegedly Japanese, attacked and machine-gunned three British motor-cars on their way from Nanking to Shanghai, 16 miles from Shanghai. The occupants, including the Assistant Air Attache (Lieutenant S. Murray) alighted on the side of the road and no casualties resulted. The cars carried Union Jacks which were easily identifiable. A member of the Embassy party, Mr Graham, in an interview, said the Union Jack was conspicuously painted on the cars, but this did not deter the attackers. A bullet smashed the window of one car. The British authorities informed the Japanese, who issued a statement declaring that they had not been notified that British cars were travelling to Shanghai. The Japanese authorities later stated that they had received a preliminary report showing that the planes concerned were unable to see the markings on the cars, which were supposed to be occupied by high Chinese officers. The British Consul-General has completed a preliminary investigation, and it is learned that the British Embassy in Nanking notified the Japanese Embassy in advance of its intention to send the cars to Shanghai. Later it was disclosed that the British cars, because of a misunderstanding, followed a route different from that indicated to the Japanese. Accordingly the British remonstrance was in mild terms.

The Japanese also declare that the British used two cars instead of three, as notified; but according to Mr Graham his car was nearly a mile ahead of Lieutenant Murray's when six Japanese planes swooped down from 300 ft. The motorists hurriedly alighted and rushed into the fields. The Japanese fired for six or seven minutes between his and Lieutenant Murray’s ear. Lieutenant Murray seeing the planes menacingly overhead, descended and showed that he was a foreigner, but the firing continued. The convoy was delayed to pick up M. Shakov, a member of the Russian Embassy, and a woman secretary, whose car broke down. The Japanese claim that they stopped firing when they saw the Union Jacks waved. JAPANESE TRAFFIC IN DRUGS ATTEMPT TO DEMORALIZE CHINESE (Received October 13, 10.5 p.m.) LONDON, October 13. The Times say that the air bombings have distracted attention from a deliberate Japanese attempt to demoralize the Chinese by means of drugs. The Japanese-controlled regions of China and Manchukuo, which are the chief source of heroin, morphine and opium, have attained this unsavoury prominence with the knowledge and often the protection of the Japanese authorities. The inadequacy of the penalties applied by Japan t* Japanese nationals in China has paralysed the efforts of the Chinese to repress the illicit traf-

fie. As the large-scale manufacture of drugs requires an expanding market with the impoverishment of its victims, the Japanese are already looking outside China. The United States and Egypt are aware of the gravity of the situation. Japanese official circles have, again protested agaii.st foreign allegations of connivance or indifference. Japanese commercial organizations sent a long cable message to the Association of Chambers of British Commerce, reiterating the now familiar declarations of Japanese goodwill to China and denials of bombing atrocities, and urging the association to check anti-Japanese propaganda and to assist Anglo-Japanese friendship with a view to developing trade. The association replied that the messages would be very fully considered. A former member of the House of

Commons, Trebitsch Lincoln, who was suspected r* being a German spy during the Great War, and is now a Buddhist monk, has published a circular in Shanghai denouncing anti-Japanese propaganda in China and declaring that a new Empire has arisen which will ensure more peaseful conditions than the Christians.