To the Editor of the "Nortu-Cuia Dany News"
Sin—Your recent leaderette "Unreliable Sources" is quite justified for publicity on the Chinese side has been grossly mishandled since the commencement of the present hostilities. China has a prima facie case but she is far from making the] most of it and is letting the wily Nipponese spokesman out-manceuvre her in the field of publicity. Though) discernible improvement along the publicity front is in the offing it is to be regretted that the intelligence and publicity division of the Foreign Office does not take a hand in its direction. Residing in our midst there are many competent men who could have. been of considerable help among whom it may be mentioned Dr, M. T. Z. Tyau and Mr. Samuel Chang both former directors of the aforesaid foreign service division. What a pity that such experts were not pressed into service.
Without trying to whitewash the inaccuracies of some of the Chinese news agencies who are too prone to) permit their enthusiasm and imagitation run riot it may be permissible to mention that the allegation~of internment of Japanese soldiers may be attributed to the mistaking, by quite a number of people, of the prisoners from Ward Road who came into the Central District under police and military escort for prisoners of war.
In the field of diplomacy too the Japanese seem to get the edge on us, at least in the local arena. A prompt apology and assurance of non-recurrence following the unfortunate, accidental bombing on "Bloody Saturday" would have mitigated considerably the damages done. Thus reassured, our foreign friends would not have considered it necessary to evacuate, which they did on such a large scale.
May your correspondent therefore offer the sincerest apologies of a private citizen to your foreign readers for the inconveniences and expenses they have been subjected to, as well as for the disruption of trade and of their normal pursuits. Though this is a war of self-defence and one forced upon us nevertheless' we should be very sorry that you, our foreign guests should have been put out and your correspondent desires to assure you that a goodly number of his compatriots fully share his humble sentiments.
The Japanese spokesman has disposed of the more recent bombings, that of the Sincere's and Szechuen Road, very adroitly in spite of the damaging evidence. It is generally conceded that the missiles- are aerial bombs and that a Japanese squadron was up in the vicinity at that time and neutral observers have actually seen several of them flying over. the Settlement—before the explosion. The absence of the firing of Japanese battery of antiaircraft guns which invariably greets the appearance of Chinese! aeroplanes conclusively proved the! absence of Chinese bombers. There is only one answer to where the responsibility. lies. That answer is as obvious as it is unequivocable A. Que. Shanghai, Aug. 24, train points in this letter are covered in the leading article on p. 4
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.