THE FIGHTING AREA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 224, 21 August 1937, Page 9

THE FIGHTING AREA.

DETAILS OF THE DISTRICT. WELLINGTON, Aug. 20. Information regarding the nature of the area in which the fighting is being carried out in. Shanghai was given m an interview last night by Mr S • ’’Hutchison. Mr Hutchison was for seven years the representative of the New ‘Zealand Government’s Department of Industries in Shanghai, and he has recently returned to Wellington. The Yangtze-poo district is the industrial centre of the International Settlement, where most of tho cotton mills and manufacturers’ plants are situated, said Mr Hutchison. Jardine and Matheson and Company’s brewery, which has been seized by the Japanese, is owned by one of the largest British fimis in China. The same owners are also general merchants and control a fleet of coastal vessels which trade ‘from Shanghai to the north as far as Japan, and to the south as far as India. Thy also manage the Ewo cotton mills, the biggest British mills in Shanghai. The gaol housing 8000 convicts and 60 British warders is known as tho Ward Road Gaol, and is considered to be one of the most up to date institutions of its kind, said Mr Hutchison. It is situated in the middle of the Yangtze-poo district. The China Steam Navigation Company is the largest Chinese shipping company in operation, and it has been placed under the control of the Government with Mr L. K. Ku as general manager. Mr Ku is the owner of a large woollen mill and the China Match Company. The Chinese merchants have three different wharves on the Wliangpoo. The consulates in Shanghai are situated in close proximity. The Japanese Consulate, which is stated to be in ruins, is near the German Consulate, which is close to the Soviet Russia Consulate. Across Soochow Creek is the British Consulate, almost opposite the Broadway Mansions, an hotel occupied by the Japanese. In the 1932 trouble, said Mr Hutchison, the Japanese occupied the Astor House Hotel, which is next door to the Broadway Mansions.