London, June 3.
Instructions had been sent to Sir Robert Craigie, the British Ambas-suder in Tokyo, to protest urgently against the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, particularly popul-cus centres, declared Mr. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, in reply to questions in the House of Commons today regarding the bombing'of Canton.
Reports indicated that, whatever might have been the objects aimed at, most of the bombs fell in places which could not be considered of military importance, the Prime Minister said. The result of the raids on May 28, 29, and 30, he added, was approximately 450 killed and 1,000 wounded.
No refugees, Mr. Chamberlain asserted, had been evacuated from Canton by: British warships as a result of the air raids, and no reports had been received of British subjects being killed or injured.
Mr. Arthur Henderson, Labour member for the Kingswinford division of Staffordshire, suggested an approach to signatories of the Nine-Power Treaty with a view to making joint representations to Japan.
Mr. Chamberlain: "I would do anything that I thought would be really effective im preventing the Japanese Government sanctioning bombing or raiding-of this character, but I am not sure that the particular course suggested would be effective."
Mr. Geoffrey Mander, Liberal member for East Wolverhampton, then asked: "Apart from holding u> their hands in horror, do the Government propose to do anything at all?"
Mr. Chamberlain: "It we could hold up the hands of we certainly would do so.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.