Last week a storm broke upon Shanghai newsmen in a downpour of unexpected violence. First warning came like a clap of thunder in the form of an executive decree, issued by Wang Ching-wei's Japanese-puppet Government at Nanking, ordering the arrest and deportation from China of six U. S. newsmen, one Briton for "endeavoring to undermine the Chinese [i.e., Wang] Government ... by distributing rumors and improper statements endangering the Republic. ..."
The seven: !— Norwood Francis Allman, chief editor of Shun Pao, China's largest independent daily. A native of Virginia, lawyer and poloist, Allman went to China in 1916 with the U. S. Consular Service, resigned in 1923 to practice law in Shanghai. Two years ago, Shun Pao's Chinese owners called in Lawyer Allman, asked him to take over management of the paper, see that nothing offensive to the Japanese crept into its columns. A fluent Chinese linguist, Allman reads every story that goes into Shun Pao, writes editorials, corrects editorials written by staff members. He serves without pay. Last spring Allman earned the enmity of Japanese when his name was put up for Shanghai's Municipal Council. He made no speeches, conducted no campaign, won with 8,000 votes, highest in a field of 13 candidates.
Three Japanese candidates were beaten.
> John Benjamin Powell, Missouri-born managing editor (since 1917) of the China Weekly Review, editor of the daily China Press. A onetime instructor of journalism at the University of Missouri, Powell arrived in China during World War I, became a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. He was one of the early backers of Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. A bitter enemy of Japanese aggression, Editor Powell steel-plated the doors of his printing plant, organized his own postal service to distribute the Review in Japanese territory, kept it going in spite of Japanese threats and interference.
> Cornelius Vander Starr, No. 1 life insurer in the Far East, real-estate speculator, owner of the Shanghai Evening Post & Mercury and a TiMEstyle China newsmagazine. East. Ten months ago the editor of Starr's Ta Mei Wan Pao, Chinese edition of the Evening Post & Mercury, was shot dead as he crossed the bridge over Soochow Creek. Last April Starr's newspaper plant was bombed, killing three Chinese and an Annamese policeman.
> Randall Gould, editor of the Evening Post & Mercury, correspondent in China for the Christian Science Monitor.
> Harold (Hal) Mills, born in New Orleans, publisher of the Chinese daily Hwai Mei Chen Pao. Publisher Mills's plant was bombed three times in February 1938, wounding nine Chinese (including a detective, who shot down one of the terrorists) and a foreign cabaret proprietor.
> Carroll Duard Alcott, extraordinary news commentator for a U. S.-owned radio station (see p. 48).
> Joseph A. E. Sanders-Bates, British director of the Shanghai Evening News.
A warning only was the Nanking decree. Neither Britain nor the U. S. speaks to Wang Ching-wei: they could not obey his order without granting tacit recognition to his Government. As long as the seven newsmen stay inside Shanghai's International Settlement, they are safe from arrest. The six who are U. S. citizens cannot be deported anyhow without a trial before the U. S. District Court for China.