To the Editor of the "Nonru-Cumwa Dany News"
St—Please allow one of the much despised tribe "Old China hands" space for a few remarks anent the many accusations and counter accusations of atrocities daily appearing in the correspondence columns your esteemed journal.
As & preface I would state that have nothing but liking and adiration for the hard working—Kindly—patient and often suffering popula tion of China and Japan and a good deal of dislike and contempt for their governments, be such party o family government.'or dictatorship of the military caste. Also I feel like every Jother normal being, nothing but hor~ Yor and distaste for warlike measures with result In not alone danger but actual destruction of civilians and their property whether such civilians be of "enemy" nationality or neutrals But—and to my mind it is a big but—it does not, I think, behave us neutrals out of sympathy with one party to take part in propaganda for One and vilifeation and/or belittling of the other of the warring porties Churches (either from pulpits or by tbroadeast messages) or from indivi duals, Let the parties themselves do their own propagand:
The other day an eminent Chinese (who of course is perfectly justified in carrying out propaganda for his own side) mentioned in a broadcast 1 understood right—that rules. bombing had some time ago been tentatively agreed upon, although not yet made binding International Taw and that the second paragraph of these rules was to the effect that st civil population lives near a place of military Importance and. bonibing therefore would endanger their lives such object of military' importance must not be bombed" and that—the speaker continued—therefore, even if the Japanese honestly believed that there were "soldiers at the South Station in Nantao and/or the Station was used for military purpose, they had no excuse for the bombing.
Excellent, if such a rule has in fact teen—although only tentatively—eyreed on, but if that is the case what price the repeated alr raids and the bombings—commencing August 1d—and continued ever since when there is a chance—by the Chinese on the Japanese ships and other military objects in Shanghai narrow harbour oF at its water front several times with very disastrous results to the lives and property of both Chinese and neutrals. "Are we hhere less entitled to consideration than the population of Nanking—even it comprises among its numbers the Ambassadors and their stafls—or of Canton? One wonders if the off-lal protests made in Tokyo would of have been less spirited or may be not forthcoming at all if the ives of the above august personages, which are evidently highly priced, had not been placed in s>m Jeopardy.
By all means Jet us get these sense-Jess bombings, which if one can believe even a part of the offal com. iuniques on the part of those suffering from them, have not produced much of military value to the at" tackers—stopped if such is within the sphere of possibility, but Tet get them stopped by both sides and Tet _us neutrals whatever our personal sympathies, stop lauding the one parly of this unhappy strife to the Skies and condemning the other fo the nethermost Hades—They are both tarred with the same brush—and so is for that matter the rest of the world—did the Government of one of the great powers indignantly protesting think as much as 130 years back? (and that is not a very great space of time in the history of mankind) when its own military forces without declaration of wal bombarded, set fire to—and killed a number of the inhabitants of—a populous City, Human nature changes very slowly if at all Shanghais special misery would of have taken place at all it the Chinese Government ad not elected to attack the Japanese Garrison here. Although this decision" may, as. you said in one of your leading"articles, perfectly justified "by polities or. military Yeasons," the fact remains that they took such a decision well knowing that it would spell misery and make death and destruction for the civil population and their property likely in this vast city—to my mind they took here—even it the war as a whole is of course defen sive on their part—a very grave responsibility which it will take a Jot to Justify.
'But frst, last arid finally Jet us non-Chinese and "non-Japanese all stop propaganda for of against the warring parties—let us as individuals quietly' attend to our business what-fever it may be—let the journals give ux the news but leave us to form our own opinions—we are quite capable to do so—and let the Churches Keep out of polities—tot us quietly give what help we may to. those {in distress and—T think—tet us first consider the foreigners Lore, whom are destitute, that 1s cur first duty. (There ly no luck of native capital to take care of native distress). After we have helped our wu people we can always, if such possible for us, help others and finally Jet' us all hope and pray that sanity may soon return to the leaders of both warring parties and give this Croat and unhappy country what its population so bitterly needs—Po.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.