The French Deputy Commissioner, who is in charge of the French Municipal Police during the leave of absence of Commandant Fabre, left his home in Clement Apartments, at 1363 Rue Lafayette, at about 8 am. to go to the Police Headquarters in Route Stanislas' Chevalier, and was riding in his car along Rue Lafayette when his automobile was forced to stop just outside Jubilee Court as there was another car, stationary, blocking his way. As soon as his car came to a stop, five or six Chinese, standing on both sides of the street, opened fire at him. The car was riddled with shots, while a window was shot to pieces.
The courageous police officer jumped out of the car and engaged the gang in a gun-battle. One of the gunmen was wounded and fell to the ground, dropping his pistol. Greatly outnumbered by the gang, who had fired about twenty shots, Lieutenant Blanchet was wounded when a bullet struck the left side of his body. He continued to fire away, however, until another shot had penetrated his right shoulder.
Seeing their victim hurt, the gunmen dragged their wounded confederate into their car and drove away.
The wounded police officer was taken to the Ste. Marie's Hospital where an operation was performed upon his shoulder by Dr. Santelli, With all banks and many public bodies and offices closed and with the Kuomintang national flags hung everywhere, Chinese in Shanghai yesterday celebrated the birthday of Confucius without Holding any public meetings. The birthday of the great sage was celebrated, however, by both Chinese authorities in Chungking and also by those new Chinese "authorities in occupied districts, where commemoration meetings were held.
In foreign areas in Shanghai, commemoration meetings were held in schools, but no public ceremonies were held. Prior to the war. Kuomintang officials usually made speeches in the Confucian Temple in Nantao to eulogize Confucius as the great teacher. The day is officially known in Chungking-controlled provinces as "Teachers' Day," on which students have to respect their teachers especially by deeds.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.