Japanese naval authorities yesterday emphatically denied that the shell that "hit the USS, Augusta, was fired from one of their gun In support of their contention that the fatal shell must have been Chinese, the Japanese naval authori ties cited three factors. These were og follows:
1—Aecording to American naval emeers, the shell hit the after well-deck from a high, angle, High-angle shells are either' fred by treneh= mortars or by anti-aircraft guns, Japanese naval guns hive a straight 2—Japanese "war vessels in port wore not firing their anti-aircraft guns at the hour the shell hit the Augusta as there wore no enemy craft in the alr at that time, Japanese aircraft were flying over the Yau tszepoo district at that time, Japanese trench mortars are not being fired in the direction of Pootung or Nantao, as they being used exclusively operations along the Chapel and Yangtszepoo sector, —In contrast, Chinese guns have been constantly' fired at Japanese warships in' the Whangpoo from Nantao, Pootung and Chapel, Another Case Another high-angle shell hit the French Bund godown of the. China 'Merchants' Steam Navigation Ca. about one hour before the fatal explosion on the Augusta, Japanese aval authorities pointed out. That the trajectory of this shell was similar to that hitting the Augusta could be established by the fact that it entered the corrugated iron roof of the gor down at an almost perpendicular angle, A naval gun would fire its shells along a more horizontal plane, it was emphasized,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.