ERRIBLE GRAVEYARD"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 142, 8 February 1932, Page 5

ERRIBLE GRAVEYARD"

— By" -Telegraph-

? ' • » * 1 ■ ' • ■ : WAR WRENCHED RUINS

js Assn.-

— Copyright).

j ttec. Feb. , 7, p.in. I SHANGHAI, Saturday. 1'e special correspondent of tfie s Association writes, "Skirting fSettlem'ent" 'boundary; avoiding japanese lines, and escorted by Lmerican educated Chinese staff >r to-day, I walked into the Chinterritory in the wake of Japanilestruction, traversing a terrible eyard of desolation. Every:e I glanced there was nothing acres of blackened ruins of once perous shops and homes. Gaunt ;tons of charred buildings stare [ibly at ev'ery angle. Smoking [ cover the roadways, gaping i fronts and erumbling walls tell ory of a terrific bombardrhent, a fire which devastated an area ve square niiles. lapei is a ghost land and an appalsight of destruction not witnessjutside an earthquake zone. Un- : damage is represented by ter3 junk. .j Charred Bodies baps of charred bodies and unreiisable civilians and soldiers lie he road unburied, beyond which bhinese are replying to the firing, ly entrenched beyond the ruins ie North Railway Station, which le objective of aeroplane attack 'heavy Japanese bombardment. rokeri saridbag emplacements cun;ly hidderi round corners indicate bpposition encountered when the inese entered Shanghai at midt a week ago. I plodded througii sea of desolation to the Chinese s where the defence forces of Cantonese Nineteenth Route y are sullferily resisting the efforts apture Chapei. There is no c among these soldiers. Their ile is liigh. Good Discipline iere is unmistakeable discipline ig these Gernian trained troops. not the first time they have been r fire as they have been engaged iously against other Chinese id bandits and Communists. Some reterans of the 1907 campaign. ie staif car carried me along the l San Road towards Chengju, e the Commander in Chief, GeiiTsai Ting Kai's head'quartei-s are ;ed in a villa formerly occupied wealthy family. tall slendel' figfire appeared on rerandah, and General Tsai Ting was introduced. We entered the )tion room, the floor of which covered with sandbags, below i is a cellar where the staff take ?e if aeroplane attacks com|e. 3neral Tsai Ting Kai loolced more a scholar than a commander of fmy of 45,000. Fight Till We Are Gone reply to a question, he'said: "1 ghting f or the defence bf Shang[against Japanese aggressibni a is behind ine. I sh'all fight until i is not a single man in my army Please tell the' world that mine . offensive war. I am only on the isive." |e General declared that hls solare accustomed to fightixig, and lot afraid of the Japanese. He the Japanese did not know a ; deal about real fighting, while iWere cowards. t iese remarks were translated as Ting Kai cannot speak English. • said he favoured the- Powers' psals and welcomed the' arrival M'eign troops, whose presence for the purpose of 'defending ghai against the Jajpanese.