793.94/12417: Telegram

The Consul General at Shanghai ( Gauss ) to the Secretary of State

255. A number of acts of terrorism were committed last week. Four severed heads of Chinese were discovered in the French Concession, the first being that of the editor of an anti-Japanese vernacular paper, the other three not having been identified. To two of the heads were attached warnings in Chinese against carrying on anti-Japanese activities. Bombs were also detonated without injuring any one, on the premises of the Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury, the Hwa Mei Wan Pao which is allegedly partially owned by an American citizen and a vernacular paper being operated by British subject. It is understood that Chinese employed by these papers received threatening letters before the bombings occurred warning them not to publish further anti-Japanese items. In the case of the bombing of the Evening Post and Mercury, the police arrested two Chinese who have confessed the crime but from whom no information appears to have been elicited thus far regarding the identity of the party or parties who instigated the bombings. It is believed in some circles, however, that both the bombings and beheadings were committed by a terrorist organization working directly or indirectly under Japanese direction.

Repeated to Peiping and Hankow.

Gauss