Emphatically refuting the allegation that the Japanese air' raids on Canton were "indiscriminate," a Japanese naval spokesman here yesterday morning declared that attacks were directed solely against Chinese military establishments and centres of anti-Japanese activities.
"Japan's policy. of. discriminating between military objectives and civilian zones remains unchanged end strictly observed", he asserted.
"That civilians should suffer is naturally regrettable, but it must be remembered that as early, as- last August the Japanese naval authorities had warned against staying near Chinese air bases and military and strategic establishments, "If our warning has gone unheeded, there is nothing we can do", Anti-Aircraft Fire Casualties The spokesman pointed out that the heavy anti-aircraft fire during the Japanese raids on Canton had probably caused numerous casualties.
In the course of Monday's raid, he claimed, hits were scored on. the buildings of the Canton Municipality, the Provincial Government, the Gar-risen Headquarters and the Bureau of Finance.
The buildings of the Kwangtung Government were said to have been set on fire.
A battery of anti-aircraft guns east of Sitsun, in a suburb of Canton, was silenced by direct hits, the spokesman claimed.
More than 40 hits were also scored by the raiders on the power plant, a cement factory, and a sulphuric acid plant at Saichuen, another suburb. All of these structures were said to have been wrecked,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.