Press Release Issued by the Department of State on December 13, 193720
The Secretary of State, the Honorable Cordell Hull, said this morning that he is getting all the essential facts concerning the sinking of the Panay. When they have been assembled, representations based on those facts will be made at Tokyo.
The Department of State this morning announced that Ambassador Johnson reported from Hankow at 5 p.m., December 13 (Shanghai time), that Dr. Taylor20a at Anking had telephoned again at 4:15 transmitting a statement from Mr. Atcheson that the survivors were in danger at Hohsien. Dr. Taylor stated he thought that the danger was due to fighting there. Mr. Atcheson stated that Mr. Gassie20b had a wound in the leg. The other members of the Embassy staff are unhurt. A British gunboat reported at 3 o’clock the afternoon of December 13 that it had been off Hohsien for over half an hour and that it could see no signs of life on the north bank, that the Standard Oil Company’s Meian was beached and deserted, apparently hit by bombs on the bridge; that the Panay’ outboard sampan had been recovered from the mud half a mile below the Meian; that Socony ship Meiping was burning fiercely at Kaiyuan wharf on right bank of river and that the Bee20c was proceeding to investigate.