SAFETY ZONES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 January 1939, Page 7

SAFETY ZONES

PROTECTION FROM BOMBING A FAR EASTERN SCHEME. Sir Hesketh Bell writes to the London “Times”; I venture to ask whether the Committee on Evacuation, when considering measures for the protection of the inhabitants of London and of other great cities, took into account the highly successful methods which, during the past 12 months, have been adopted*in China. In the autumn of last year the appalling massacre of Chinese civilians, by the aerial bombardment of Shanghai, inspired Father Jacquinot, S.J., a prominent and admirable French missionary, to move for the creation of a “refugee 1 zone,” within the limits of the city, in which non-combatants would be comparatively safe while other parts of Shanghai would be suffering the horrors of attacks by aircraft. An international committee, composed of the chief nationalities resident in Shanghai, was formed and the scheme came into practical effect in the early part of November. With the consent of the Chinese authorities a district known at Nantao, lying between the French Concession and a. densely con-., gested part of the old Chinese city, was selected and freed from all troops, munition factories, or other military works. Its boundaries were clearly marked by large flags.

The Japanese Government, greatly to its credit, gave cordial approval of this scheme, and in a letter dated November 5, 1937, their Consul-General at Shanghai wrote to the Rev Father Jacquinot as follows: — “I have now the pleasure of confirming that the Japanese military and naval authorities, strongly moved by numanitarian considerations, and in cognizance of the guarantee offered by the chairman of the International Red Cross Refugee Committee as well as the assurance that any violation of the status of the said district, which will be guarded by special policemen, will be reported at once, have agreed that they will not attack the said district so long as it remains to be an area'to be exclusively for the civilian population and entirely free from any military operations or armed hostile acts as is guaranteed.” By the end of November nearly a quarter of a million of distressed Chinese had fled to this sanctuary and were saved from unspeakable sufferings. The committees, which dealt with food, water, medical, police, and many other services, appear to have worked most efficienty, and so faithfully did the Japanese honour their pact that, in the words of the committee’s report, “not a single shell or bomb had fallen into the special area during the fighting which had taken place around.” The outstanding success of this scheme at Shanghai led very quickly to the adoption of similar arrangements at Hankow and other Great Chinese cities, that were liable to bombardment, and it may be accepted that the lives of tens, if not of hundreds, of thousands of hapless Chinese have thus been saved.