As an overture to yesterday's hostilities in the Shanghai area, all Japanese forces at the front, officers znd men, rose at dawn, faced in the direction of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, and paid their respects to His Majesty, the Emperor. The occasion for the early morning formality was the autumnal festival date in Japan.
Later in the morning, Japanese warships lying in midstream off the OSK. Wayside Wharf opened up with a bombardment of the Pootung area immediately behind the Shanghai and Hongkew Wharf on that side of the river. This shelling continued intermittently between 10 am. and about noon.
Shanghai also heard some shelling yesterday morning in the vicinity of the North Station and in Paoshan Road near the Commercial Press Building, In the early afternoon, two Japanese warships—one lying in midstream near the Customs Lower Station and a second off Hunt's Wharf—shelled the Pootung side near the China Merchants Eastern Wharf and about one-half mile south-east of the Olivier Engineering Works respectively. There was also occasional shelling on Paoshan Road' in the vicinity of the Water Towe The Japanese army air fórce "successfully" bombed Chinese artillery positions in the Shanghai area, the Japanese spokesman reported. He also said that advances of between four and five hundred metres were made along all army fronts despite bad weather and obstacles placed in the path of the advancing forces by Chinese troops.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.