Conffagrations, in constant success sion, were yesterday to devastate Nantao further, once a very populous city, but now laid waste by hostilities. The refugee sanctuary, bounded by Boulevard des Deux Repub-cliques and Fang Pang Road, which cuts across a portion of the old city, has escaped damage so far.
Huge columns of smoke, visible at considerable distance, continued to darken Shanghai's. southern horizon. In contrast, the district at night was lit up with an enormous glow and, on occasions, flames were seen raging furiously from vantage points in the French Concession and the International Settlement.
Starting from November 10, when Chinese positions in Nantao were severely bombarded following the withdrawal of troops from western Shanghai, the blaze, counted as One, will have been burning for ten days up to yesterday.
An independent spectator, who climbed to the top of a high building a few days ago, reported having Observed nineteen individual fires both inside the city boundary. Chinese sources blamed the Japanese in occupation for deliberately setting the buildings ablaze for the alleged purpose of smoking out Chinese snipers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.