Warships Instructed to Fire on All Aircraft Tokyo, Mar. 10.
Japanese warships will henceforth be compelled to fire on foreign aeroplanes flying over them. This statement was made to-day by Rear-Admiral Noda, spokesman for the Japanese Navy Ministry. Admiral Noda added that aeroplanes of third powers must positively refrain from flying over Japanese warships in China waters, The Chinese Air Force, explained Admiral Noda, consisted of aeroplanes of foreign manufacture—British, American and Soviet—and therefore, it was extremely difficult for Japanese warships to distinguish them from those owned by third powers.
Two cases of such misapprehension were cited by the spokesman.
On February 21, he said, a Japanese plane observed a foreign-made machine flying over a Japanese warship and, therefore, took it to be a Chinese aeroplane. When about to attack, the Japanese pilot realized that the plane was British and deisted from attacking it.
Another such case, the Admiral continued, occurred last year when an aeroplane of unknown nationality flew over a Japanese warship and dropped some bombs. The Japanese warship fired on the said plane, only to find that the bombs were smoke bombs.
Admiral Noda concluded by expressing the hope that such unfortunate incidents would not be repeated in the future.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.