Such wide scope and deliberate method of destruction against Chinese educational institutions, the statement continued, can mean only one thing, namely the intention and fixed policy of the Japanese army to cripple and ruin Chinese education in such an irretrievable way so that the salvaging would be almost impossible and revival would take a long time.
Only such sinister intentions, the statement said, can account for the thoroughness and completeness of destruction.
In its final appeal, the statement called for world condemnation of Japanese aggression in China in the following terms:
"The Chinese people now facing invasion of their soil, aggression against their national existence, have risen to a man to the supreme occasion.
"They have resisted attacks gallantly and are making heroic sacrifices in defence against the aggressor who is not only invading their country but also violently outraging all human decency and conscience.
"We the undersigned therefore feel it our duty to voice our condemnation and call on the enlightened opinion of the whole world to add the weight of its moral judgment in condemnation of this great menace of Japan against civilization.
"There can be neither progress nor peace for a world society where such menace goes unchecked. We are bound to add further that where irresolution can only encourage the offender, a determined world policy based on effective sanctions is the shortest, quickest and only safeguard for the interest of the civilized world.""—Central News.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.