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Buddhist temple. The party ended the day at the sunset service at which, in the twilight, before three huge statues of the Buddha, stood the abbot surrounded by serried ranks of robed monks. The whole service was beautifully done with only one incongruity—a small boy walked past with a basket of bean curd wrapped up in a copy of the Los Angeles Daily Herald. The Inspection party continued their journey on to Nanjing that evening.
A typical announcement in the China Inland Mission journal, China's Millions, noted that "In August 1932 Communist activity in North Anhui had prevented four lady workers of the CIM appointed to that part of the field. They had continued their language training in Chinkiang through the summer". The policy of the then central government of Chiang Kai-shek placed blame for any banditry on the shoulders of the Communists who were then based in Jiangxi province.
Zhenjiang was one of the cities overrun during the Japanese advance on Nanjing in the December of 1937 when the former Concession was largely destroyed in the hostilities between China and Japan. However, Zhenjiang appeared on the international scene at least once more during the run up to the Second World War. In their drive south in April 1938 the Japanese 5th Division crossed the Yangzi at several places including Zhenjiang and pushed on forcing the KMT [Chinese Nationalist] divisions along the River Huai defence line to the south to crumble.
To frustrate Japanese use of the Yangzi as a route by which to advance into central China the KMT forces sank a number of ships at strategic points including a number near Zhenjiang. To ensure that freight got through Butterfield and Swire transhipped cargo brought down from up-river on to a dedicated boat they kept moored between Zhenjiang city and the entrance to the southern part of the Grand Canal, and then once more transhipped it on to junks which carried the cargo down the Canal south to Shanghai. Parts of Zhenjiang, including the B & S office, were destroyed during the comparatively short period of heavy Japanese bombing preceding the eventual capture of the city and their advance up the River. The small British B & S staff simply moved to the APC installation outside the city.
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