The always well-informed and objective Far Eastern correspondent of the ╥Neue Zurcher Zeitung╙ has, after several vain attempts, at last succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the Japanese pickets who are keeping foreign correspondents off the Shanghai battlefield.
Trenches, he writes, have been dug across the racecourse near Kiangwan. The railway station of Kiangwan has been completely destroyed and the college opposite is a burnt-out shell. In the village of Kiangwan Chen not one house has remained undamaged. Some of the houses are still smouldering. There is not a living creature to be seen, and naked bodies with the flesh burnt to the bone are lying about in the streets and in the ditches. In the fields civilians killed by projectiles are lying dead amongst dead horses, pigs, and sheep.
The Chinese had built strong defensive lines in the western part of the battlefield. The trenches and the machine-gun positions were skilfully made, but Japanese artillery worked terrible havoc. The trenches are full of Chinese dead, most of them surprisingly youthful.
Although the battle was over several days ago the Japanese have made no attempt to bury the Chinese dead. No Japanese dead are to be seen anywhere. While foreigners are kept away from the battlefield very many Japanese civilians are now to be seen, some of the accompanied by their wives and children. They are allowed to visit these scenes of horror and desolation. Japanese fathers show their sons the dead soldiers lying in the trenches. Some of the visitors seem to be inspired by the Samurai spirit, for they wander amongst the desolation with rusty swords in their hands collecting souvenirs.
