Chinese Flee from Nantao While Snipers Delay Advance

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 42, 12 November 1937, Page 5

Chinese Flee from Nantao While Snipers Delay Advance

-United Press Association-

V i SANCTUARY FOUND IN FRENCH CONCESSION

By Electric Telegraph—

— Copyright.

(Received 12, 2.45 p.m.) SHANGHAI, Nov. 11. The Japanese commander, General Iwane Matsui, announces that in effect he is now master of Shanghai and feels free to take any steps dictated by military necessity regarding the International Settlement, whose authorities are pro-Chinese. He is unable to accept responsibility for the protection of the rights and interests of the various Powers concerned at Shanghai. General Matsui expressed the opinion that the war might last five years, as Marshal Ohiang Kai-shek predicted. According to a message from Tokio, the Japanese have advanced 30 miles from Taiyuanfu (Shansi). The War Office announces that communication between Shanghai and Nanking has been severed. Apart from a £ew "suicide snipers" valiantly making a last stand, the Chinese completed the evacuation of Nantao, in which 10,000 were holding out against the Japanese, when those beleaguered entered the French Concession after day-long bombing and shelling. The Japanese are virtually masters of Nantao, the last Chinese foothold in Shanghai. From roofs in the International Settlement awed spectators watched bricks and timbers flying towards the sky as planes made power-dives almost vertically and loosed loads of bombs the explosion of which rocked the whole city. The Chinese stubbornly kept on replying with a hail of machine-gun fire. One bomb landed in the French Bund, killing six Annamite guards and wounding two French soldiers patrolling the Soochow Creek less than threequarters of a mile from the shambles of Naiitao. Fresh wreaths lie at the base of the war memorial on the Bund, a column.of stone surmounted with the Angel of Peace standing out starkly against the Clouds of smoke testifying to the ghastliness of the nearby destruction, * At nightfall blazing junks from the river boom and other fires on land lit tip Nantao and Pootung, where Japanese flags everywhere are flying. The "suieide snipers" took heavy toll of the attackers, but did not prevent the rout of others who, as they broke and ran, were chased by Japanese tanks almost into the barbed wire which the French had strung across the bridges leading to the French concession. French troops guarding the border of the Concession ducked and took cover as the tanks fired on the fugitives, but at the first luU troops and police dashed out to drag the Chinese over the wire to safety. Chinese warriors in plain clothes fought off the advancers, who paid heavily for their gains at every street corner. The "suieide snipers," after the stiffest resistanee, fled to the nearest houses on the approach of the tanks, whereupon the Japanese set fire to the buildings to permit the advance to continue. Foreign observers believe that the main Chinese forces are % falling back and that their next stand will be in the region of SooChow Lake, but it is possible that the Japanese, having clcared out the Chinese in the immediate vicinity of Shanghai, may not pursue further. - Foreign circles are expressing apprehension at the ruthless mopping-up by the Japanese, accompanied by threats' of action against anybody who dares to interfere. \ 'The Japanese military spokesman announced: "We have captured Tsingpu, The Chinese force has been completely routed and is fleeing towards the west from Tsingpu.'" If this is confirmed, 1 it is of great importance, for Tsingpu lies in the centre of the line to which the Chinese had been reported to be retiring for a new stand. The French police had difficulty in interning the Chinese soldiers who took sanctuary in the concession. The concentration cajnps which had been prepared are overcrowded. Twenty-eight hundred have been disarmed to-night. Heavy fighting is also reported from Sunkiang, which is expected to form the new extreme right of the Chinese line.