The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-02-12
Biggest Fight Now
 Raging Along Front
(Continued From Page 1D

Chinese had been firing all morn- ing long.
 For the first time in the last two weeks the city was quiet. The deafening boom of the big guns was stilled as rescue parties at a. m. c D. m. last night EST) left tue settlement and proceeded into Chapel on their missions of mercy.
 accompanied one party into the shell-shattered native area along Jugkong road into Chapel. The Chinese kept up their desul- tory rifle fire.
 Were raising hell afterwards" Japanese officers in the lines com mented significantly.
 The occasional rifle fire from the Chinese endangered relief workers | among them 13 nuns and g. Brit ish girl in four motor trucks flying | Red Cross flags.
 The women ignored the sniping. Col Hayley Bell a British officer in the Shanghai volunteer corps. and Father Jacquinot, French priest. who had co-operated in arr ranging the truce, accompanied the second relief party. The girl in the group was Colonel Bells daughter.
 There was sporadic firing on the Woosung sector at the mouth of the Yangtze river, but the front ! was strangely quiet. Heavy mists lifted during the late morning. Taking advantage of the Hull in hostilities, I had walked through Chapel. At the north station, just outside the settlement, 100 Can | tonese troops were on guard be- hind heavy sandbag supplements. They have resisted every assault | in the past two weeks of bombing and artillery fire. They appeared cheerfully prepared for further fighting. some were boys not more than IA.
 l All of the Chinese were well equipped, their gray uniforms fur lined and their Tapping service caps reminiscent of confederate uniforms in the American Civil war. They were friendly and calm ly pointed to hug craters inside the devastated station caused by aerial bombs.
 Shell fire and air attacks had | wrecked the station, terminal of the ShanghaiNanking Railway. The Cantonese used parts of the ruins for billets.
 The rescue parties rounded up the Chinese civilians still clinging to their poor dwellings in the shell-swept area. A steady process sion trudged along the narrow, winding streets toward the inter- national settlement.
 They were sorry looking lot. bent over with huge bundles of goods. Rikisha were forced into duty. They creaked along piled high with bedding, bits of furni- ture and other odds and ends.
 It was amazing so many could be found alive in the Chapel dis trict, heart of the two-weeks' bat tie.
 One strange sight in this de- pressing business was the hyster- ical clamor of scores of refugees, already safe inside the foreign lines and re-enter Chapel to salvage Many squeezed through the lines.
 A tour along the Japanese lines revealed a sharp contrast to the Cantonese nonchalance. The Jap anese stopped visitors every few yards. With out-thrust bayonets they demanded passes. They sul- lenly manned sandbag outposts along q once populous street, long since deserted, The street was lined with charred and ruined brick building.
 Japanese women in disheveled 1 llimono, some with infants on their backs in native fashion, moved along out of the danger zone. They appeared forlorn.
 Inside the Chinese lines, the Chinese joyously welcomed q chance to escape the peril of fall ing shells. They laughed as they hurried toward the safety of the settlement.
 | At II o'clock tonight, the most intense bombardment of the week continued in the Chapel sector. Numerous Chinese shells, fired at the Japanese between them and the settlement, fell within the Japanese defense area of the set- tlement. The reverberations kept residents of the settlement from sleeping.
 Efforts of foreign officials to achieve peace failed. Lampson and Johnson conferred separately with the Chinese but were unable to reach agreement on the Japanese suggestion for @ Chinese withdraw a., which the latter would not &C., cept.
 It was estimated Japanese troops endorsements arriving tomorrow would total 10000, after which the final drive was expected to begin.