Japanese fleet authoritieydenounced the Chinese for an "indiscriminate aerial bombing" of the s. Tachibana Maru, hospital ship, near Kiukiang on Friday morning in a communique issued at noon yesterday.
The Japanese naval authorities recalled that Chinese planes bombed and strafed the s. Asahi Maru, hospital ship, off Woosung at the commencement of hostilities, and also bombed the s. President Hoover in the same locality.
On the mast of the Tachibana Maru was a big Red Cross flag, the corimunique said.
On the upper deck and the sid of the ship also were clearly painted big Red Cross marks, the communique continued.
The attacked ship is quite different Ófrom other ships in type as well as in colour, which can be clearly discerned from the air at a high altitude, the statement said.
"Despite these facts, Chinese planes perpetrated such reckless actions" the communique sai In the battle of Kiukiang, the communique said, Chinese soldiers attacked Japanese troops while hiding themselves in buildings owned by foreigners along the Bund in the former British Concession, a fact which caused Japanese troops to suspend firing at one time.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.