The following letter from a women correspondertt gives some idea of what foreigners outside the "safety" of ihe foreign areas have had to endure in these months of war.—It was our lot to be located in the capital of an interior province, where we arrived just before the Shanghai hostilities broke out. We learned by radio of all that was going on, of the dropping of bombs, A black wool green" Jacket, velour hat, frock, with short unusual green ribbed compose. Miss June Cla Costume—equally wearable under foamy fur coat or for the first elusive days of Spring. accidental and other on the International Settlement, and were appalled at the loss of life.
On the morning of August 15 we experienced our first air raid, but were so unprepared for the visit that we just couldn't believe that Japanese planes were flying over us. There were six planes and they flew back and forth, their visit Jasting 40 minutes. Only just before leaving did they drop the bombs which came as such a shock to the poor ignorant population.
The loss of life was small but the effect on the nerves of the people was appalling. Within an hour of the departure of the planes people were streaming out of the city. Officials moved their women and children out, and the city became simest empty. Food supplies stopped. we couldn't get ice, and, worst of all, our servants left en masse. We had to do our own marketing, and as everything had to be used immediately because of the heat, we had to buy and carry live chickens and fish.
We were now having air kaid alarms daily and frequently two or three times a day. The alarms having proved false so frequently, when we heard the whistle blow in the middle of the night of August 26 we merely turned over in bed and said, "We'll get up when we hear the planes." An hour later we heard them and before we could jeave our room the bombs started to fall, lighting up the room with the flashes and shaking the house. We got downstairs and out onto the lawn Just s we got outside we saw what appeared to be signal lights flashing just over the wall from us, and the planes immediately moved off in the direction to which the lights flashed and simply rained bombs in that area, approximately 40 being dropped in quick succession. The next day the beaes of several traitors who has been flashing signals to the Japanese planes were hung up on the bridge.
After this raid the people again panicked.
Then a stert was made to build air raid shelters and dug-outs. The authorities built them at the street intersections. using concrete sewerage pipes filled with səna and topped by sond-tilled packing cases. Many of the poorer people prefer red, however, to go out into the country when the alarms sounded. One saw some rather amusing sights—notably that of a policeman lowering himself into a manhole in the middle of the street end carefully draw'ag the lid down over him Another day, in the country, we saw a student sitting in a little ditch which just fitted Fim, wih a bunch of dried grass placed on his hea During each raid the cirfie! were bomb. i. surprisingly. dan zo done. There were 45 minutes in which to pre-he alarms sounded whenever a Japanese plane sighted. ud this gave ample time t9 get any aeroplanes up o: the ground. And in: ny case, more often than not bombs intended for the airfield fell hundreds of yards outside.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.