HORRORS IN CANTON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 June 1938, Page 7

HORRORS IN CANTON

HOSPITALS HOPELESSLY OVERTAXED Doctors Exhausted and Wounded Dying JAPANESE CONTINUING RUTHLESS RAIDS By Telegraph.—Press Association. —Copyright. CANTON, June 9. The hospitals are unable to deal with the situation arising from the air-raids. The plight of thousands of injured is terrible. Exhausted foreign and Chinese doctors are on duty for 24 hours at a stretch, yet many of t e wounded are dying through lack of attention. Isolated cases of cholera are reported. Numerous dead are unburied. The city of Canton has spent two nights of terror. The remorseless Japanese bombers, taking advantage of brilliant moonlight on Tuesday night, swept over again and again, the raid lasting for five hours. Obviously they were seeking out military targets, chiefly the power station at Saichuen, and consequently it is believed civilian casualties are not high. The raiders dropped flares to identify their targets. Lack of current prevented sirens giving warning of the raid over the Wongsha oil depot, which is blazing fiercely. It is estimated that up to Tuesday 2500 had been killed, 5000 wounded, and 1700 houses destroyed in the succession of raids on Canton. Yesterday it was again midnight before the terror-stricken city gained respite from the Japanese raiders, who had added at least 200 killed and 300 wounded to the casualties. The Anger of the inhabitants is revealed by the firing of rifles and revolvers at the low-swoopirig Japanese, who was using both highexplosive and incendiary, bombs. The latter caused a widespread blaze at Wonsha. The firemen heroically fought under constant attacks from the air. Some incendiary bombs dropped within 400 yards of the Shameen international quarter. Hundreds of bombs were rained bn the Government headquarters and the Sun Yat-sen hall, which is miraculously intact.

The planes again appeared at 5.45 and 7.30 a.m. on the eleventh successive day but received vigorous fire from the anti-aircraft guns. No bombs were dropped, although later they bombed what remains of the deserted Wongsha station.