'Doomed Battalion' Escapes

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 32, 1 November 1937, Page 7

'Doomed Battalion' Escapes

-Press Assn.

MARSHAL'S ORDER Force Finds Asylum in British Area ARMS CONFISCATED

(By Telegraph-

— Copyright.)

(Received 1, 10.45 a.m.) SHANGHAI, Oct. 31. Acting on the order s of Marshal Chiang Kai-shek,'who realised that the defence would not fulJll any military purpose, the remnant of the "suicide battalion" abandoned before dawn the Chapei -warehouse in which they had been holding out against the Japanese. The defenders rau the gauntlet of enemy machine-gun fire and entered the British post, where they laid down their arms. They were warmly shaken by the hand and cheered. Brigadier-General A. P. Telfer-Smol-let, ODmmander of the British troops in Shanghai, who paid a Jtibute to the Chinese gallantry, superintended the taking-over of 400 rifles, 18 machineguns, and ammunition that they bfought in. The evacuation occupied three hours,

in which 577 Chinese dashed over to safety. Six were killed and 3.0 wounded. The Welsh Fusiliers assisted and gave first aid to the wounded. The Japanese have oceupied the warehouse. The Japanese informed the Shanghai Gas Company — it is British-owned — that they intended blowing up the "doomed battalion," the warehouse being 300 yards away from the gasometer. If the gasometer had exploded it would have wrecked a quarter of the city. A Japanaese naval communique says that 100 Ckinese corpses were found in the warehouse occupied hy the "doomed hattalion." It adds that an abundance of fresh food also was found. "The landing party," the communique adds, "cannot suppress its feeltngs of displeasure at the presence of the provivsions, which must have been smuggled through the British de« fences." Later: It is officially stated that two were killed and 24 wounded when the "doomed battalion" dashed to safety. Three hundred and seventyseven of the original 500 escaped alive and were interned in the westem district under a British guard.