GRAPHIC description of how a Japanese light cruiser, after hoisting a signal ordering the ship to stop, fired two shots was given to a "North-China Daily News" reporter yesterday by. several passengers arriving in Shanghai in the P. & O. liner, s. Ranpura, shortly after she had berthed in midstream on her eastward voyage to Japan.
The Ranpura, it will be recalled, was stopped on May 24 by a Japanese warship about four miles south of Waglan Lighthouse, near the entrance to Hongkong harbour, and was boarded by a party of Japanese sailors, who remained on board for about twenty minutes, during which time they asked that the ship's papers be produced for inspection, About six hours later the French liner, my. Aramis, which was also berthed in the Whangpoo River yesterday, was stopped by another Japanese warship and boarded, It is learnt that the Japanese board. ing party remained on the ship for only about twenty minutes, leaving in haste shortly before the arrival of the British destroyer, which had picked up a wireless message sent out by Captain L. Parfitt, master of the liner. Following the arrival of the destroyer the Ranpura was escorted to Hongkong where statements were made to the British authorities by Captain Parfitt.
Although no statements were made by Captain Parfitt or any of the ship's officers yesterday, passengers gave their version of the boarding incident which, they stated, occurred when the ship was almost in Hongkong waters. The Ranpura was about four miles south of the Waglan Lighthouse, they stated, when a Japanese warship was seen about a mile away.
'A few minutes before eight am. the warship ran up a signal for the Ranpura to stop and the liner slackened speed, while Rear-Admiral AIL. Murray, new Commander of the British Fifth Cruiser Squadron in China, a passenger on the ship, was seen to go on the bridge, where he conversed with the captain. No sooner had he got there when a shot was fired by the warship followed a few seconds later by another. "Naturally," one passenger stated, "there was some alarm on board as by this time the ship was almost at a standstill There was no panic at all however, as several of the crew, mostly ex-naval men, explained tnat the shots were warning signals to the liner," the passenger added.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.