Attempt to Stop it Several P.T.H. schoolboys were witnesses of @ kidnapping and shoot to ing yesterday morning when four Chinese,' all believed. to! have been. armed, abducted the nine-year old son of Woo Chi-chang, a cotton merchant, from Kinnear Road at about 750 am. Although no shots had been fired by the kidnappers, a Chinese police constable, who was informed of the crime and who chal-longed the gang, emptied his clip at the car, the vehicle being hit in at least two places.
The four kidnappers were in a hire car when they espied their victim and took him away. The abduction wes witnessed by a foreigner, who immediately informed C.P.C. 1143 of the crime. The latter challenged the gang, whereupon one of the criminals brandished a Mausepistol, but did not open fire.
Seeing that his order to halt was disobeyed by the kidnappers, the C.P.C. opened fire at the car, which failed to stop. The car was later found abandoned in Robinson Road near Penang Road, by Japanese gendarmes, who took it to their headquarters and finally turned it over to the Settlement Police.
The shooting took place at some distance from the Public School in Kinnear Road, at the time when many boys were on their way there, Some of the boys went down on their stomachs, while others remained standing, wide-eyed. Fortunately none of the shots caused any injuries to anybody, although the occupants of the fleeing taxi might have been wounded.
The affair created quite a stir among the parents of the school children, although in a letter to the Editor of the "North-China Daily News," a writer states that it is rather unfair to expect the S.M.C, to do more than-they are doing under the circumstances.
The scene of the kidnapping and shooting is in the western area, under Chinese jurisdiction and it 3 there that crime thrives, since the Settlement Police are given very little scope to exercise their authority. A recent gun battle between the officers of Bubbling Well station ang gangsters resulted in the deten tion of the whole police party for more than five hours, the reason for the detention being given by the authorities there was that the Settlement Police have no right to execute arrests in any of the alleyways or side-streets in the district.
The Imperial Conference was said to have decided, however, that unless Generalissimo Chiang agrees to alter China's attitude toward Japan "within a certain length of time," Japan will retaliate by extending formal recognition to the Wang Ching-wei regime in Nanking.
Japanese circles said that Japan would "ignore" the Chungking Government if the latter refuses to accept "liberal peace terms" and forces Japan to recognize the Nanking regime.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.