THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1937.
CHINESE
3
LAUNCH OFFENSIVE
Guns' Thunder Wakes Shanghai to Second Day of Chapei Battle
CITY'S DEFENDERS ANNOUNCE ADVANCE AGAINST JAPANESE
Infantry Thrust Accompanied By Intensive Bombardment
Shanghai, Aug. 14 (9.46 a.m.).
Very heavy artillery fire is distinctly audible at the United Press offices here, in the centre of Shanghai. presumably.
ON GUARD IN S'HAI
As In 1932, American marines are now guarding the upper reaches of the Soochow creek in Shanghai. Picture shows a group in full war-
kit on guard at an important Junction.
It is not far distant, JAPANESE STILL
IN SEARCH OF
Our correspondents are trying to locate it, but so far they have not been successful due to their inability to penetrate the Japanese lines,
Meanwhile a heavy fog and rain, with the black ball of the typhoon signal hoisted on the Customs House tower, depress the International Settlemen t.-United Press.
CHINESE CLAIM ADVANCE
Shanghai, Aug. 14 (9.30 a.m.),
The thunder of guns indicates the resumption of heavy fighting. The Chinese claim to have advanced at several points about a mile north-west
of the Japanese Landing Party headquarters,
At 5.30 am. to-day artillery fire was so violent that people miles away from the scene of the fighting were awakened. Meanwhile, the fires in the fighting areas have died down; either the buildings have been consumed or rain has quenched the flames.
Simultaneous attacks against Japanese cotton mills to the north-east of the International Settlement and the Japanese positions in Chapei, near the Landing Party's
CHINA
DRIVE OPENS
headquarters, were launched by the Chinese infantry at Nanking Troops
4.20 a.m., with strong artillery support, according to a
Japanese communique. The results of these engagements Hope to Ease
Nankow Crisis
|ALSO AIM AT
are not as yet available, but it is presumed they are continuing-Reuter,
CHINESE ADVANCE Shanghai, Aug. 14 (10.01 a.m.) The Chinese garrison headquar« ters announced this morning that troops had occupied Chih Tze University, directly cast of Hongkew Park, at 40 minutes after midnight. From this point they are presumably planning a new attack on near-by Japanese positionis,
Tilden To Tour East
Wants To Play In Hongkong
TIENTSIN
EYE-WITNESSES TELL STORY OF CHAPEI BATTLE
Correspondents Brave Gunfire to Obtain First - Hand News
(SPECIAL TO “TELEGRAPH")
By John R. Morris
Shanghai, Aug. 14. Japanese sailors who apparently consider the Sino- Japanese hostilities in Chapei as a strictly private fight, drove Correspondent Bud Ekins and me from a vantage point a half a mile west of the Japanese Naval Landing Party Headquarters yesterday with half a dozen warning shots. But for half an hour, from 4.45 p.m., we watched | the Japanese in action against the defenders of Chapei.
Before the amiable sailors suggested our departure, we watched Landing Party detachments 100 yards away attack with rifles and machine-guns Chinese positions which were another 300 yards further west.
Our vantage point was a shell of a ruined house,
ASIAN HEGEMONY destroyed by the gunfire in 1932, and situated about half
Tricked Chinese Army Into Belief Local Settlement Aim
Berlin, Aug. 13.
"The present conflict in North China is a further step in Japan's programme of territorial expansion on the mainland of Asia,” asserted Dr. H. H. Kung, Chinese Finance Minister, on the eve of his departure from this city for Prague, Rome and home.
a.
a mile inside Chapel, where Chinese dwellings and a few blocks of semi-modern buildings are interspersed with open areas as large as city blocks.
As I said, the principal detactment of naval men visible on our arrival was 100 yards to our right, engaging Chinese who were invisible to us, but whose replying machine-gun fire and rifle tattoo was too distinct for per- lect comfort.
Naval trucks carrying reinforce- ments to the Japanese and cuses of ammunition dashed along the road past our dilapidated shelter. And shortly after our arrival 200 blue- jackets foot passed 100 yards to our left.
BUILDINGS ABLAZE
Several blocks of burning buildings
clouds of white amoke. The nearest fre, though not the largest, was about 500 yards ahead of us and behind the
head and to our left sent up great
"This is but another phase of her cherished dream-advance Chinese positions. A Brl- Lish police officer at the Dixwell Road dream particularly dear to the die-hard militarists-police station and expressed the opin- for the hegemony of Asia and her supremacy over the lon, as we stopped on our way to Chapel, that Japanese Incendiary Western Powers.
shells had started these blazes.
Two Japanese reservista
Eight Burn To Death In Plane
Berlin, Aug. 13.
A new plane for a big German airline took to the air to-day ou Its first scheduled flight. It carried eight persons, including passengers who had no worrien about "Friday, the thirteenth.”
It crashed at Hanover airport. burst into flames. All of ila occupants were burned to death.
-Reuter.
tween two big fres Union Jack Shultered over some British property
from our rear afoot, and while the which, shooting indicated, will be
arrived
our Jifficult to protect.
dies eighbourhood With Fue Wherever I looked, except for de
"By tricking General Sung Cheh-yuan into the belief that they were sincerely seeking a local settlement, the Japanese militarists were able to launch a surprise attack ner rifle fire, accepted our explanations for our upon the Chinese troops, forcing them to withdraw from earnestness and my rusty Japanese. life 1 could find was a yellow cat or smiles both our ploying Japanese, the only sign of presence with Peiping and Tientsin," Dr. Kung explained.
"If a major conflict must come,' Under the noses of two Japanese he continued, "China can have no destroyers, the Chinese are completing alternative but to resist force with a boom across the Whangpoo River, force. Personally, I believe there are 200 yards south of the Shanghat Club. reasonable and far-sighted statesmen The barricade is intended to prevent in Japan who see the folly and the Japanese steaming up the Whang- ultimate disaster to Japan in the mod poo to land troops for an attack on policy of her militarists. Unfortu Nanking, Aug. 14.
the rear of the Chinese positions. nately they are dominated by the Chinese reports state that Two steamers and scores of cement militarists who are fanatical in the Central Government troops have inden junks have been sunk in the belief in Japan's sacred mission' in W. T. Tilden intends to conduct a launched a vigorous offensive channel, which is now impassable. the world."
Dr. Kung hoped, he sald, that saner Thousands of Chinese refugees are communique respecting this action. world tour of professional tennis along the Tientsin-Pakow Rail-stranded on the waterfront, unable and more far-sighted views would
players during the coming months, way and are advancing rapidly to sail from Shanghai, owing to the restrain Japan's militarists his troupe Including Henri Cochet, towards Tientsin.
closing of the Yangtse River to future.-Reuter. navigallon. However, it is estimated
U.S. JAPANESE EXCHANGE The tour lakes in the Far East and The Chinese drive is partly that 20,000 have left for South China
Washington, Aug. 13. Tilden has expressed a keen desire aimed at Tientsin, which the in the past 24 hours-Router. that he and his colleagues should play Nanking Government wishes to in Hongkong. The troupe will arrive
NANKOW IN HANDS
The Japanese have not issued any
-United Press.
INDIAN CONSTABLE MURDERED
ASSAILANT TAKES OWN LIFE
A dual tragedy, resulting in the death of two Indian constables, oc- curred early this morning at Tai Mi Tuk village, Taipo district, when one of the men is said to have shot the other dead and then himself com- mitted suicide.
Lester Stoefen and Ramillon.
here either late next February or recapture, and partly at relicv-
SL
on
carly March, and it is suggested by ing the Japanese pressure Tilden that they figure in a three-day Nankow, where powerful Round Robin Tournament.
Full story will be found on the Japanese force is hammering at the Chinese positions.— Reuter.
Sports Page.
RENEWED GUNFIRE
Shanghai, Aug. 14 (8 a.m.)
a
OF JAPANESE
(By Francis Fisher)
Nankow, Aug. 13. I hiked into this town to-day though it was necessary to follow an abandoned trench because of casional rifle bullets, and arrived at at 1.50 p.m., simultaneously with a
00-
town
numerous
for our
They then completed the conversa-kulking dog, as frightened os 1. tion in fluent English, and shouted to
A mile and a half away from the a near-by company commander that we were harmless, though somewhat International Settlement the streets, foolish, correspondents.
especially in the vicinity of the Land- ing Party headquarters, are filled with the panoply of war. Troops, sandbags
HEAVY REINFORCEMENT
way
and ammunition every-. where; staff officers in open cars; laison officers dashing madly in motor-cycle side-cors; and immediate ned refugees in a new and frantic ly behind the lines of combat terri- exodus to the International Settle- ment. That was the picture.
We left our ruin, however, and re- turned afoot to Hongkew Park where we had left our motor car. We met heavy reinforcements of Japanese on to the front, including motor-cycles with machine guns mounted, and one midget tank, which Pressing Forward Swiftly had stulled at the corner of Shanghai and Woosung Roads, to the great em- As fast as trucks returned empty barrassment of its two occupants. from the front lines, they roared in-
the
in the
Mr. Cordell Hull, Secretary of After separating from Ekins into the huge concrete and steel naval Stale, and the Japanese Ambassador order to extend our coverage, I made headquarters bullding to load and by Immediately started off again with to-day discussed the developments in my way, frequently challenged the Sino-Japanese situation. Mr. Japanese sentries and later by Rus-fresh munitions and fresh men.
slons
the International
The fact that the Japanese are to North Station and using tonks and mortars and setting
the Central Government
fire to villages, indicates their deler-
Hull described their conversation ansette che
an ordinary exchange on "the acute the conditions" In the Far East.
The Secretary, of Siale went on to troops front line. Through themination to press as far forward s say that there had been no special massive iron getes of the North possible against the Chinese without discussion the grave situation Honan Road entrance to Chapel I waiting for reinforcerem in the International Settlement
conversed with one of six Chinese on Shanghal.
outpost duty. He was 60 years of Replying to a question as to a steel helmet, with a rifle taller than age, clad in khaki shorts and tunle,
at
Dreadful Sights
of in 1914, the veterans of the most horrible. A British officer, later on, one of
Tho
KUNG SIGNS
The stillness of the broken early to-day by the boom of Pelping. I found the Japanese Inated States and France would ask cheerfully upon the ominous situation told me he had seen sights on the FOR CREDITS
Huns, heralding the resumption of full possession of the new
now around the railway station, holding that the International Settlement be on all sides, fighting. Sporadic Aring is
fringe of the International Settle- to a mile or so west of the mouth of not used as a base of operations by continuing. Berlin, Aug. 13.
the disputing countries, Mr. Hull
ment to-day worse than those of that FIRING AT SNIPERS Before his departure for Prague
Meanwhile, the elty of Shanghai is Nunkow pass.
suld he knew nothing of this moller
other war. down
mls- with some 10-day, China's Finance Minister, Dr. awaiting
The population is very sparse. yet..-euter,
Japanese outposts in Range Road, by have been looted
The panic has become very real MALICIOUS INVENTIONS
.300 yards west of mo, had been firing now, after weeks of rumours, The affair took place at about B. II. Kung, was the guest at giving, wondering whether Japanese a.m., the murdered man being P.C. luncheon of Marshal von Blomberg, acroplanes, from the aircraft carrier Muny shops
Moscow, Aug. 13.
at snipers ten minutes before my guns are actually, fring, Red Cross commander-in-chief, and which is lying oft Woosung, will persons unknown,
The shelling of August 11 damaged Reports from Japanese and Ger- arr 419 Kaka Singh and his.ossallont P.1 German
arrival. other high Army officers and Gov-attack the Chinese positions.
the railway, hotel and C.309 Arjan Singh.
shelters are receiving the wounded. ernment offelals. The luncheon was The most exciting encounter yestere ether. buildings, and set fire to ille come sources that Russia is taking Ducing the twenty minutes I spent This is war, in a city which has only
clay
part 'In the Scanty details are so far available, given at the War Ministry.
present military between the Chinese and Japanese become partly rehabilitated from the ail storage warehouse. destroyer and gunboat dropped a
However, operations in China,
by ending lines at North Honan Road gate no last hostilities, five years ago. but it appears that the men quarrelled
Subsequently it
announer barrage to halt a Chinese attack on vital points are not damaged. One military advisers, and so on, to the more than 60 Chinese soldiers were which over a debt of $300 Wied to the Dr. Kung had signed an agreement Japanese cotton mills. The Japanese shell lunded on the tracks in front Chinese, are declared to be malicious visible to me at any one time. But The Japanese tell me that the
with Swiss and Dutch bankers for claim the Chinese were forced to re of the station, tere up the rails and Inventions, requiring no
comments, there were Reveral
thousands Chinese forces now engaged are not substantial credits for China tire to their original positions.
blew in the station windows. There according to the Taas Agency, barriended in sniping positions In the
track Nanking Troops, but Reuter.
is little evidence of any casualües.
Reuter
near-by buildings, I was told.
Shanghal Peace Preservation Corps JAPANESE DISLODGED
Meanwhile, Ekina had gone north,men. The Japanese also assert hos¬ Evacuated August 11
Uilities began because the Chinese Chinese and Japanese lines remain
and the few switches which into open country towards Klangwan. railway Chinese residents agree the Central the Chinese blew up. All railway Here is his story:
fired with field artillery into the practically unchanged at the moment from what they were at the outbreak Government troops left
Japoncae positions. The Japanese on equipment is being guarded and STUBBORN RESISTANCE had forced the Chinese to refront of hostilities, except that the Chinese August 11 and sald the Japanese had utilised. Half a dozen big locomo
westward, they claim. assert they have dislodged the blue-entered yesterday afternoon, though tives are here for use on the steep The Chinese were resisting stub- Juckets of the Landing Party from an the Japanese say they took possession Nankow Pass grade. Railwaymen bornly, although the villages in which I saw no signs of Japanese planes, important bridge in the Chapel- in the morning.
evacuated with the Chinese troops.- they were entrenched were blazing, which caused: such destruction Kiangwan sector.
Army engineers are repairing the United Press.
when I arrived near Kinngwan, Be-1992—United Preu.
other constable.
me
WE15
LYNCHING BILL
The murdered man had previously been a sergeant in the Police Force, but was dismissed some time ago for altempted bribery of a European police sergeant. Arjan Singh is sald to have lent him $300 at that for his defence In the proceedings
Washington, Aug. 13. which took place, and it is stated; The Senate has passed a resolution that Kaka Singh refused to repay to postpone discussion of the Lyn- this sum, over which the fatal quarrel ching Bill until next session.-Reuter occurred this morning.
Bulletin.
here