OCR Text |
Show Writer Tells War Horrors in CKina; InnocenttarveUlainndJIaime(l Felfar'a r H m. Fklea, t'BltaS rwaa war ipiMnl, 1m Jeet wliwil t rw tnrk aflOT ma amain la la IH-Iat raverlae lae C.laMa iapaaiM w. Tkla la Ilia rlrat af a airlaa af arttrW mi Ma viparlracr. Br H. B. EKINS (Copyright, 1937, for The Telegram) NEW YORK, Dec. 27 (UP) I flew from New York to Shanghai last July to join the United Press staff covering the Chinese-Japanese hostilities which had started outside Peiping the night of July 7. 1 . . . .... ..--W, HntrxiciNS 'Starkest Human Tragedy' I found myself In the midst of Hie starkest human tragedyThat I experienced in covering wars around one-half the world. I reached Hankow early in August. Au-gust. Hankow la known as the "Chicago" "Chi-cago" of China. It ia a sprawling, steaming city on the banks of the great Yangtse river and for centuries cen-turies the army which controls it has been the strategic maMer of Cathay. Women, Children Hlain I went to Hankow. Got out on the last passenger plane which left the city and reached Shanghai Just In time to be at the Palace hotel when it was bombed by Chinese fliers trying to strike at the Japanese. Japa-nese. Three Chinese aerial bombs killed at least 1600 people including Americans in one minute. All these people were civilians. Not one soldier sol-dier was hit. They were the children, the men. and the women of a great city who were going about the activities of everyday life just aa Americans go about their everyday activities in the middle of any day in any city of our country. They were the victims of modern, mechanised war. Two bombs crashed through the Palace and Cathay hotels on the crowded Shanghai waterfront. One Bomb Kills 100 It was as if Times square in New York or the intersection of State and Madison streets in Chicago were attacksd at the rush hours. Another bomb crashed at Avenue Edward VII and Tibet road. That bomb alone killed mors than 1000 people. It mangled hundreds of children, women and men beyond recognition. Indicative of ths destructiveness of modern explosives, I saw the bodies of persons who had been killed simply by concussion. Every bit of clothing had been blown from the bodies. I went into the countryside. Death struck there with ths sams effectiveness effec-tiveness that It struck In ths cities. Japanese and Chinese planes came over high in ths skies, circled, and cams down In screaming power dives. The bombs cams from them almost as accuratsly aa shells cams from field guns. Columns of men simply dissolved Into fragments of torn flesh. Houses disappeared In clouds of dust which settled over the bodies of the farm families that had been In them. I went Into Chapel. I had seen Chapel one of the principal Industrial arsas of the Shanghai Chinese city destroyed before, during the Chinese-Japanese hostilities of 1832. The disaster then wss almost as nothing compared to this destruction. destruc-tion. It was a grim example of the speed with which ths effectiveness effec-tiveness of explosives is being developed. de-veloped. Innocent Stares I saw children, women and men die In hundreds. Many of them were blown into piecea too widely scattered to make possible a decent de-cent burial. Some of thoss who lived through ths continuous series of attacks and counter-attacks wars Isft with only stumps for limbs. Others were blinded. I saw the development of the Chinees "scorched earth" policy. It is designed to destroy svsrything deetroysbls in the path of ths enemy's ene-my's advance so that hs cannot live off ths countryside. I saw children starvs when food supplies were cut off. I heard a description of war from broken Chiness soldiers who were Invslided from ths front. They whispered whis-pered of men who were chained to their machine guns so that they could not csass firing whan they were assignsd to cover a retreat |