On Monday, September 4, Li Junhao presided over the closing ceremony of the second batch of new police cadet training at the No. 196 No. 3 Squadron of the 4th Regiment of the Sea and Land at Xiaoshadu, and among the 1,100 trainees, only more than 40 were eliminated without qualification, and 1,055 people were left in the end, which made him very satisfied.

With the addition of more than 1,000 new policemen, the total number of the Public Concession Police Department at this time has reached nearly 5,000, and all of them have undergone rotation training and newcomer training.

——

At this time, the news of the German attack on Poland and the declaration of war by Britain and France had spread, and for the people in the concession, it was the foreign nationals who were most affected, especially those from several countries concerned.

There are about 4,800 German expatriates in Shanghai, most of whom work and live in the Public Concession, and less than 200 in the French Concession. In addition, there are more than 1,500 Polish expatriates, basically all of whom are in the French Concession.

When the news of the German attack on Poland was confirmed, from the afternoon of September 2, dozens of Poles insulted and attacked the Germans in various parts of the French Concession, and in two days, four people were killed, more than 20 were wounded, and two German expatriate residences were set on fire...... The patrol room of the French Concession is too busy for this!

In view of the special situation after the start of the war, as early as 1 September, Li Junhao issued a special directive, demanding that all departments of the police force and each arrest house be responsible for strictly controlling the public order situation in the concession, and immediately stop and arrest the criminals and plotters when they discover people and behaviors that make trouble or premeditate trouble.

At the same time, he called directly to the commander of the 4th Marine Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Dijay Cole, and asked him to closely monitor the movements of the 700 Italian troops and be ready to take urgent measures against them.

He also contacted Colonel Aite Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of the International Chamber of Commerce, and asked them to be on full alert and ready to support the operations of the Police Force and the 4th Army Regiment.

In addition, the 1,055 new police cadets who had just graduated on 4 September were not assigned, but were organized into three mobile brigades, which were stationed in the central arrest room and each sub-arrest room, and served as a mobile force, which was subject to the unified dispatch and use of the director's office.

The various countermeasures arranged this time were named by Lee Kwan-ho as the No. 1 plan, and the Commissioner's Office formed an official document as one of the Force's emergency response measures.

Therefore, when there were some bad signs in the public concession, they were immediately controlled and suppressed by the police department, and nearly 100 overseas Chinese from various countries who were making trouble were detained within two days; However, the composition of these arrested expatriates was significantly different from that of the French Concession, with only a few Poles, but the most Germans, a few Italians, a dozen British, and more than twenty Jews!

——

On Tuesday, September 5th, the German Consul General in Shanghai, Benoy Volcker, convened the heads of various departments of the consulate and representatives of German businesses such as Lihe & Co. and Deutsch-Hua Bank at the temporary location on the second floor of the Yitai Building at 2 BJ Road to discuss the current situation.

The German Consulate General in Shanghai was originally located on Huangpu Road (first at No. 9, then No. 40-60) north of the outlet of Suzhou Creek, but was closed during World War I when China declared war on Germany, and then reopened. In April 1937, due to the renovation of the consulate building, the consulate general temporarily moved to the second floor of the Yitai Building at No. 2 BJ Road.

At the meeting, everyone in the consulate meant that the country had launched a military campaign to conquer Europe, Britain, France and other countries had declared war on Germany, and the current Huhai Public Concession and the French Concession were no longer safe for the Germans, so the German expatriates and merchants either returned to China or withdrew to the occupied areas of their allies, the Japanese......

The representatives of the merchants, on the other hand, disagreed, believing that the situation in the French Concession had indeed deteriorated and that the expatriates and commercial assets should be withdrawn as soon as possible; However, the situation in the public concession is markedly different, and it is now the Americans who are actually in charge of the Ministry of Industry and the police department, while Germany and the United States do not have a substantial conflict of interest, on the contrary, there is still close cooperation between the two countries in commercial trade; So, for some time, the public concession remained safe for the Germans.

Colonel Peter Luce, military attache of the Consulate General, supported the former, and now the consular guard under his command was only more than a hundred people, and once the French and British took action, it would be impossible to protect the consular staff and a large number of German expatriates; So, although he didn't like the Japanese, it was best to withdraw their expatriates and business assets to the Japanese-occupied areas now.

Consul General Volcker proceeded from a political point of view, Shanghai is a transnational economic center and financial center, and the concession is the core of it, and if the German forces withdraw from the concession like this, it will be tantamount to giving up its interests here on its own initiative, and it will lose points politically. Therefore, he felt that the evacuation of the French Concession was not a problem, but the matter of leaving the Public Concession needed to be cautious.

After some discussion, it was decided to first withdraw the expatriates and commercial assets from the French Concession, and to inform the expatriates and merchants that if they were willing to withdraw to the Japanese-occupied areas on a voluntary basis, the consulate and the chamber of commerce would provide assistance; Those who are unwilling to leave the public concession can maintain the status quo temporarily, and if there is a danger or unexpected situation, they can contact the Consulate General in time.

After the meeting, Consul General Walker and Military Attache Lu Sibing went to visit U.S. Consul General Ayers, while the latter went to the Police Department to visit Commissioner and U.S. Deputy Military Attache Pan Sen, with the purpose of finding out the attitude of the United States toward Germany and hoping to obtain a commitment to protect German nationals.

——

Ayers, on his side, even though Germany had already started the war, agreed with Little Auger that it would lead to a Second World War! But he still politely received the visiting German Consul General Volcker, after all, both are career diplomats, and they have worked in Shanghai for several years, and they are friends with each other.

In the conversation, Ayers adhered to the cautious style of a diplomat, and responded to Volcker's inquiries only with an official official reply: At present, relations between the United States and Germany are still normal, and the U.S. Consulate General has not received orders from hostile Germany......

Li Junhao, on his part, directly told the German military attache, Colonel Luce: Although he is the adjutant of the US Consulate General, for the concession, he holds the position of police supervisor and chief of police of the Ministry of Industry Bureau, so he is responsible for the security of the entire concession! No matter what nationality you are, as long as you are law-abiding in the concession, you will be protected by him, and on the contrary, it will be a blow!

(End of chapter)