"Whatever military reasons can be adduced for some acts of destruction attending certain operations round Shanghai it is exceedingly difficult to detect them in the wanton burning of buildings in Pootung, apparently committed by Chinese agency after the withdrawal of the defending troops in that area. Such arson invites corrective action which may of itself widen the scope of disaster without doing more than further involving helpless Chinese citizens and the property of Chinese and neutrals. On a similar scale of futility is the attempt of a section of Chinese troops to hold, as it is wrongly termed, a portion of the Nantao area. At the most they can temporarily distract the attention of a few Japanese aeroplanes and tanks. They cannot ease the task of their des now engaged in withdrawing to a new line of defence. They almost certainly must expose vast numbers of their non-combatant countrymen to more misery and slaughter and the blame cannot be added to that already apportioned to the other side, Without disparaging the courage of these troops it is surely desirable for the competent Chinese a: thorities to give orders for their withdrawal or for a surrender which in the circumstances would be honourable as well as humane, having regard to the dangers inherent in their presence to the civilian community.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.