No Business Passing After August 14
'HOPEI, three months ago a ruins and ashes patrolled by Japanese forces, terrific pounding by the heaviest engines of destruction, last week's fire which followed the retreat present positions in the western district, wrote the doom of Chapei. Whether it will rise again from the ashes is something which economic and political circumstances will decide. was an appalling picture with street after street telling the story of its suffering and some square miles of blackened ruins making the aftermath of the huge blaze which created a pall of flame and smoke over Shanghai for days.
A party of newspaper representatives—the first to inspect the district exhaustively—yesterday was conducted through Chapei and the rural area beyond by Japanese authorities and witnessed the sad spectacle which was the only conclusion to be drawn from last week'sy tra-geely. It appeared like a prostrate and helpless city, devoid of life and activity with once familiar landmarks impossible to distinguish among the destruction, Indeed, the skyline appeared as a jagged array of meaningless architectural form:
For two hours the party was conducted through the area and out to the Kiangwan district and it seemed from the route taken that not only in the district traversed in Chapei but farther afield scarcely a building has survived in anything like shipshape form between the extreme measures of military activity. Even in the countryside among the fields the smallest of houses have been destroyed, and from' the narrow confines of the Paoshan Road and around the North Station well out into the country) a succession of sandbag redoubts, hastily improvised posts in shops and buildings, hundreds of miles of barbed wire defences and strongly built defence out in among the gravemounds and creeks are evidence of the bitter struggle between the two armies which eventually ended in the Japanese occupation of the district, Chinese Pillbox Revealed Passing along Paoshan Road towards the North Station, where another view of the battering suffered by the Administration Building corrects previous impressions, it was difficult to conceive how anybody could have withstood the- pressure. Opposite Blockhouse "B" an interesting exhibit was revealed. It was a concrete pillbox of amazing strength, hidden from sight by adver-rising signboards and matshed covering which the Japanese believe was built long before the outbreak. An Anspection showed that it consists of a couple of rooms, or compartments, fitted with electric light, and machine gun slots with two comfortable chairs for the guardians of the post. Behind is a strongly-built dug-out which would house reserves.
Along Paoshan Road and at the rear of the Administration there is graphic illustration of the magnitude of the Japanese task and the stoutness of the Chinese resistance. Sandbag redoubts are in almost overlapping formation along the road and every corner resembles a fortified post. The Commercial Press buildings on each side of the road reveal the effect of Japanese shellfire and bombing with walls awry, the roofs blown in and big gaping holes in the structure, In the building housing the printing department, where a huge bulge in the wall following a collapse menaces the unwary, there "is every appearance of a fortress for every conceivable material has been used to strengthen the doors and windows and among the stoutest defences are boxes of metal type surmounted by sandbags. Inside, the mass of debris disproves the theory of the pen overcoming the sword, Machinery, type, paper, material of all kinds are scattered around with bomb and shell damage completing the medley and a nice collection of '\potato masher" grenades lying in a corner Eight-Character Bridge Farther along, just where the line of fires started, big bomb craters and shell holes show the intensity of the Japanese attack, Whatever walls are standing are pitted with bullets, shell holes, splinters and bomb fragments. Calculations must run into millions of hits. The follows the beginning of the conflagratation area where every street leads to desolation and thousands of Chinese houses and shops have been destroyed by fire. As the party passed into the rural districts columns of Japanese troops were seen marching along using many forms of temporary vehicles for transport purposes. All seemed heading west, Eight-Character Bridge, so often mentioned in the communiques of recent weeks, presented an unusual sight, Over this narrow creek, within sight of the Japanese Naval Landing Party headquarters, the Japanese faced the Chinese at a distance of about 300 metres but the bridge appears undamaged despite the severity of the fighting. The countryside, however, bears the scars of war in scores of buildings burnt or shelled in the many desperate encounters in which buildings were utilized to augment fighting posts hidden among the fields.
With the continual boom of heavy artillery rattling on the ear and a sausage balloon for observation clothing the skyline, the party proceeded along Suitien Road within sight of the original battlefield when members of the Naval Landing Party in positions on one side faced the Chinese forces on the other side from lines wriggling in and out of grave mounds and disappearing from sight into the green fields, It was explained that at the beginning of the hostilities a force of 80 Japanese from positions pointed out by the guide faced 10,000 Chinese troops on the other side of the road. thriving and populous unit of the Shanghai city group, is now a desolate area of charred After weeks of of the Chinese troops to their Yesterday, it tribute, were to be seen. Some were in North Szechuen Road where the first fighting occurred: many others dotted the roads among the countryside farther afield.
The strength and extent of the Chinese defences in the countryside were revealed to the party. In the garden of what was once a pleasant villa but now merely a ruined shell the first link of a system of dug-outs which the Japanese claim extend 18 miles continuously from the neighbourhood of Kiangwan to Tazang was shown. Correspondents crawled caus viously into the entrance and emerged a long distance away having traversed a series of redoubts with firing points strengthened with planks and other material collected in the vicinity and cleverly camouflaged. It was pointed out how scientifically and thoroughly this system had been constructed necessitating the use of heavy Japanese bombers and artillery to dislodge the defenders. The discovery of potato "masher" in one dug-out somewhat awed the correspondents.
Passing this line extending far into the green, a Chinese college, considered to be one of the strongest points held by the Chinese in that district, showed the effect chiefly of Japanese bombing. The window: were sandbagged and four entrances to the quadrangle blocked with sandbags, boxes and other obstacles creating a strongly fortified position which, in the Japanese view, demanded the employment of the most powerful measures to enable the attacking forces on the other side of the road to remove the obstacle to their progress. It was explained that resort was had to the air unit, and the surrounding wall was first destroyed. After 18 direct hits were registered on the school building, gutting it Japanese bluejackets stormed the building and captured it after fierce hand-to-hand fighting. Although a school, as it was occupied by Chinese who had fortified it and used it as military base this action had to be taken against it. A little wooden tablet announces to passersby—at present parties of Japanese soldiers or bluejackets—that its shell-pitted walls and its wrecked tiled roof are now a memorial to Japanese war dead.
Back from the war front of unpleasant destruction, the scene switches to the Settlement where in the North Szechuen Road district Japanese bluejackets are at work cleaning up the debris burning rub-hish and clearing the streets, while the Japanese community, reduced from 30,000 to about 6,000, is now endeavouring to return to normal although no Chinese and few other nationals are seen about. A number of shops and cafes are open and a few gay kimonos are to be seen on the street, with khaki-clad soldiers enjoying their leave providing a contrast to the naval sentries guarding street corners,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.