3-023-384 - British Pathe Ltd/Heritage Images

Chinese Refugees Including Several With Bicycles Spilling Through Barriers With One Uniformed Soldier in the Centre, 1937. The Japanese invasion of Shanghai. 'Driven by fear, thousands of Chinese seek admittance into the [international] settlement, their only desire - security from the hail of bombs and shells. Some are allowed through, but the settlement is small. There has to be a limit, and at times it seems that all Shanghai is at the gates. There, reflected on a thousand faces - the suffering face of China. Unjustly attacked, exploited, and robbed of her proper destiny. As the battle for the city reaches a climax, so the pressure intensifies, the pressure of a China appealing to the world to help her in her agony. But the West closed her gates on the East, as though China's struggle was something beyond its responsibility. If there was one moment of death of the League of Nations, surely it was here - its funeral note the clang of all barring gates'. From "Time To Remember - Sense Of Values", 1937 (Reel 2); documentary film about the events of 1937, war in the Far East, build up to war in Europe.