At about 5.30 on the morning of June 4 the train was approach-jing the fatal crossing, hav passed Huang Ku-tun' station without stopping and ranning on the northern track of the Peking Mukden railway. At the moment Marshal Chang's car passed the veget, a terrific explosion occurred, which was heard all over Mukden.
'A few seconds after the explosion the passengers in the train heard a thundering crash, evidently caused bby the steel spans of the S.-M. viaduct falling down on the train, After the explosion the train is said to have moved on, but after the crash it stopped.
The bodyguard on the train immediately alighted and, finding nobody round, started firing in the a demonstration and alarm signal. The firing was only keet up for a few minates.
Shortly afterwards Marshal shel) Chang Tso-lin and Marshal Wu Chun-sheng, who had been sitting together in the observation room in the centre, of the former's car, were taken out and attended to. "Both were seriously injured: Chang was taken away by a Ford eax that had arrived and was driven to his mansion in the city. Wu was put and taken to a Japan-I where he passed away about an hour later. All the other wounded persons were also taken out of the cars and attended to.
The disaster claimed only two fatal casualties among the men of Political importance, viz. Marshal Chang, at whom the plot was primarily aimed, and Gen. Wu. Several other prominent people were, however, more or less seriously injured, 180° till it came to rest, (B) The northern pier was deeply destroyed from the top downwards while the northern buttress opposite was left intact, Both ends of the pier were completely blown away toa depth of several fect while in the middle there was a deep crater.
(C) The explosion completely wrecked the Marshal's car and the dining car and partly the blue steel car in front. The significant
the roofs fact in this connection fe that while of the were left almost intact as was the track underneath. The bodies of the Marshal's car and the dining-car were afterwards completely destroyed by fire, and it has, therefore, been impossible to ascertain if the damage to these cars was caused by the air-pressure of the explosion, by the falling steel bridges or by fire. In the case of the blue steel ear, however, it is quite clear that the damage was done by the air pressure of the R. explosion and that the explosion took place on the right (south) side of the car. This car had thus evidently just passed the northern pier when the explosion occurred and had time to escape being damaged by the falling bridge.
Conclusions a9 to source of explosion.
Conclusions as to Source of Explosion From above facts the following conclusions must be drawn:
1; The explosion was caused by a great quantity of high explosive, placed on the northern pier, underneath and beside the northern and central spans of the bridge.
Thus on the South Manchuria Railway track.
2. The ignition of the blasting charges must have been done electrically from a safe distance from the bridge. This necessitates elaborate preparations with electric detonators and connecting wires.
3. The of the explosives and their ignition was done with considerable skill and' forethought. The whole arrangement and its complete success unmistakably denotes the*hands of trained and capable sappers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.