Despite the announcement of the Japanese Government some months ago that the premises of the University of Shanghai were being returned to the trustees, the Japanese remain in occupation and an inspection made by representatives of the owners on Monday revealed that the property had suffered extensive damage from the hostilities and from looting.
Members of the Administrative Commission who visited the University included Messrs L. C. Hylbert. Chairman, M. T. Rankin, Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, and W. R. Taylor, American Baptist Foreign Mission Society of the Northern Baptist Convention, who issued the following statement yesterday: y "In view of the unauthorized reports which.have appeared in the public press regarding the recent visit by representatives of the owners to the University of Shanghai on November 7, 1938, we deem it advisable to issue the following statement.
"We were escorted to the campus.
While there we had free access to all the buildings. We had liberty to make inspections by groups or as individuals., There was no hurry or limitations upon our investigations or movements while on the campus.
"Extensive damage had been done to all the property by shells, bombs, and shrapnel. Concussions from heavy explosions shattered windows and played havoc with tiles. Because of the leaking roofs, broken windows. bomb and shell holes, the interior of the buildings, walls, and floors are fast deteriorating from exposure to rain and storms.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.