AIR LINER OUTRAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 September 1938, Page 8

AIR LINER OUTRAGE

JAPAN REJECTS PROTEST BY AMERICA FIRING AFTER PLANE LANDED ADMITTED. SURVIVORS LEFT TO SWIM ASHORE. By Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. (Recd This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, August 31. The “Daily Telegraph's” Shanghai correspondent says Japan has rejected the American protest against the attack on the air liner on August 24, pointing out that America has no locus standi, because the aeroplane belonged to a Chinese juridical person. Regret, however, is expressed that the Japanese action endangered the American pilot, besides killing or wounding non-combatant passengers and crew. It is admitted that the plane was fired on after landing, but it is stated that the survivors were not helped because it was thought they would be able to swim ashore. On August 26, the United States Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull, emphatically protested to Japan against the destruction of the Chinese commercial air liner, piloted by an American on August 24. Mr Hull stated that the attack had aroused public feeling in the United States, which objected to the jeopardising of the lives of Americans and other noncombatants in planes flying regularly over a scheduled route. The following cablegram from Hankow regarding the attack on the plane was received by the Chinese Consul in Wellington:—The international air liner which was attacked and forced down by the Japanese and sunk in the river has been salvaged. It showed innumerable bullet holes. The bodies of ten passengers, including two noted Chinese bankers, have been recovered. All the bodies are riddled with bullets.