Rear-Admiral Tadao Hondo has officially stated that "Chinese non-combatants are never made targets of aerial bombardment." He added that precautions are taken to preclude the possibility of error, The gallant admiral was referring specifically to the Naval Air Force but even so it is difficult to reconcile his statement with the actual achievements of that force at Nantao station and other places. It certainly will cause bewilderment in Canton. Is there some tragic lack of ce-ordination in the Japanese Navy's plans? How otherwise can the ghastly story of the humble Chinese fishermen near Hongkong be explained? Reuter's message makes it clear that the commander of the Scharnhorst had no doubt of the substantial accuracy of the story which the survivors had to tell. A Japanese submarine appears to have appeared among the junks es they were pursuing their peaceful occupation and opened fire on them until all but one which luckily made good its escape had been sunk, No effort was made to rescue the wounded and dying. Although, in comparison with the thousands killed by Japanese bombs in Canton, the 300 men, women and children thus made the latest victims of the Japanese Navy's determination io'"spare at all costs" the lives of Chinese non-combatants are small in number, the outrage will specially attract indignation. Obviously further investigation will have to be made but on the face of the story which bears evidence of being generally accurate it would seem that some truly appalling "error" has been made. Once agaín it is necessary to draw attention to the elementary duty of a military or naval commander to make sure of the character of his target before he gives orders for attack, Admiral Honda is firmly in agreement with that view, Indeed his own Government has lately affirmed it in replying to the British Note regarding the shooting of the British Ambassador by Japanese aeroplanes, Japan cannot afford to permit the accumulation of such startlingly gruesome testimony which directly belies the admirable intentions so recently outlined by one of her responsible naval officers in the foreign press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.