The. stage was set for the battle of western Nantao. The referees—in the shape of the French Army and police—the writers, the cameramen "the amateur critics, and a very mixed audience which swarmed the roof tops along Route de Zikawei between Avenue clu Roi Albert and Route Pere Robert and crammed the streets and alleys, awaited yesterday's seemingly certain combat. The Chinese defenders across the creek were well entrenched and ready for action.
Japanese claimants to the piece of contended territory reconnoitred the lie of the land, once or twice tested the aim of their pilots, their artillery-men at Jessfield and their tank machine-gunners and then decided to keep the assignment another day, meanwhile taking the fight to the other side of the Chinese city. Weary foreigners who had secured very early seats and endured the entire dress rehearsal for a postponed performance, turned homeward disillusioned once again by an incomprehensible tu of local hostilities.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.