JAPANESE RECANT DENIALS

Southland Times, Issue 23388, 21 December 1937, Page 5

JAPANESE RECANT DENIALS

MACHINE-GUN ATTACK ADMITTED

EXCUSES IN TOKYO FOR AERIAL BOMBING

(United Press Assn.— Telegraph Copyright)

(Received December 20, 11.50 p.m.)

LONDON, December 20.

The spokesman of the Japanese Foreign Office (M. Tatsuo Kawai) recanted the denial that the Japanese machine-gunned the Panay after the bombing, but he added that it was still uncertain whether the Panay or the Japanese fired first. Mr Kawai stated that the recall of Rear-Admiral Neizo Mitsunami, Chief of Air Operations, for the bombing of the Panay was considered the most severe moral punishment which could be inflicted on a Japanese officer. Mr Kawai said the accident was the result of Japanese airmen not knowing that the Panay had moved upstream, lack of proper communication and poor visibility because of smoke from the Nanking conflagration. He admitted that a Japanese Army boat fired on and boarded the Panay after the bombing, but he hoped to explain the circumstances in a further statement.

Coxswain Hulsebus has died from the wounds he received in the sinking of the Panay; he is the fourth victim. The Shanghai correspondent of The Times reveals that Rear-Admiral Holt' on December 17, after rescuing the survivors from the Panay in the pitch dark, spent the day inducing the Japanese to withdraw launches filled with armed soldiers which were flying Red Cross flags and exchanging shots with the Chinese. Their own planes killed several Japanese officers when, after disposing of the Panay, they returned to destroy the oil vessels. The officers saw the planes swooping down and shouted madly, waved flags and hurled themselves down on a pontoon on the south bank of the Yangtze Kiang, to which the two tankers had crossed. It has been, disclosed that H.M.S. Ladybird, near Nanking on December 16, saw a Japanese motor boat collide with a sampan and throw the two Chinese occupants into the water; a second motor boat fired on them, wounding one. The Ladybird lowered a boat and rescued both, upon which the Japanese told the captain that they would not be responsible for the consequences if such interference continued.

GERMAN ACCUSATION OF PROPAGANDA OF SINKING OF PANAY (Received December 20, 7.20 p.m.) LONDON, December 20. The Berlin correspondent of The Times says that two German newspapers, quoting Mr C. M. McDonalds account of the sinking of the Panay, suggest that it was printed with the purpose of working up feeling in the United States and creating a new wave of emotion which would result in the British and American fleets making a demonstration against Japan. JAPANESE PROPERTY DESTROYED

CHINESE BLOW UP COTTON MILLS IN SHANTUNG

(Received December 20, 7.20 p.m.) LONDON, December 20.

The Chinese are blowing up cotton mills owned by Japanese in Tsingtao, in the Shantung province. The explosions have been followed by huge fires. The Japanese hitherto have not touched Tsingtao, fearing that if they did the Chinese would destroy the mills, which are valued at £17,500,000. There are 500 British and many American residents in Tsingtao, but it is unlikely that they will be endangered as there is an easy retreat. A number of British and American warships are stationed there. The mills were soaked with petrol before being Set on fire. The flames enveloped workers’ houses nearby. The sole train from Tsingtao conveyed many refugees and thousands of others departed in carts and on foot. Japanese planes aimed bombs at a suburban station but they hit the blazing Japanese factories, the destruction of which, it is now revealed, was in accordance with Marshal Chiang Kaishek’s orders.

The Shanghai correspondent of The Daily Telegraph says semi-official Japanese spokesmen admit that the mills of nine important companies were blown up. They employed 24,000 workers.

The incendiarism at Tsingtao has caused a sensation in Tokyo.

INTERNATIONAL AIR SQUADRON NEW ZEALANDER BELIEVED TO BE MEMBER

LONDON, December 18.

The existence of an international air squadron for service with the Chinese Government is revealed by one of its members, who has arrived at Hong Kong to recuperate after crashing in a fight with Japanese aeroplanes near Hankow, says the Hong Kong correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. He is a native of New York and goes under the name of Robert Wherton. “There are 20 of us, and we fight for a living,” he said. “There were 22, but two have gone. We Americans cannot use our right names, or we would lose our citizenship. “There are two Australians in the squadron, White and Whitehead, „ the latter of whom flew the Tasman.

The Whitehead mentioned by the American airman is Mr R. G. Whitehead, aged 27 years, a New Zealander who has led an adventurous life In the past few years. He was at one time a Wellington journalist. In November 1934 he flew the Tasman with Mr Rex Nicol, of Manly. Afterwards he became a commercial pilot in Australia, and early this year he flew for a commercial air line in New Guinea. A cable message published in The Southland Times on October 13 announced that with Mr W. Vyner-Whlte he had accepted service in China. His father, Mr A. P. Whitehead, of Wellington, said in the course of a telephone conversation with The New Zealand Herald on Sunday night that he had not heard from his son since he arrived at Hong Kong in October, when he said he had a six months’ contract to fly in the service of the Chinese Government.