Nanking, Nov. 5.
A lengthy statement regarding the destruction of Chinese educational and cultural institutions by the invading Japanese forces during the present hostilities was issued to-day by 102 Chinese university presidents, professors and other educational leaders.
The imposing list of '.signatures was headed by Dr. Tsai Yuan-pei, President of the Academia Sinica, Dr. Chang Poling, President of Nankai University, Tientsin, Dr. Moulin Chiang and Dr. Hu Shih, Chancellor and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts of the National Peking University respectively, Dr. Tsou Liu, Chancellor of the Sun Yat-sen University, Canton, Dr. Herman Liu, President of the University of Shanghai, and Dr. Moi Yi-chi, Chancellor of the National Tsinghua University, Peiping.
The statement declared in its first part that "for more than three months the Japanese army have with singular thoroughness and ruthlessness attacked with skell fire and jambs one university after Up to the time of writing, it added, no less than 23 universities and colleges have been destroyed completely or partially, and numerous secondary and primary schools have likewise been ruined.
Tt was also pointed out that educational institutions destroyed by the Japanese army were not isolated instances, but so numerous and scattered over an area and destroyed in such a manner that no one knowing the facts could fail to perceive wherein lay the real intentions and policy of the Japanese army.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.