394.115 Panay/153: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 18—9:10 p.m.]
1186. Japanese Consul General came to see me tonight with Kusaka, Assistant Chief of Staff, and Commander Takata, a staff officer of the Japanese Fleet. They are much concerned over press reports that the attack on the Panay was deliberate and that armed Japanese boats machine gunned the American ship. They spent a long hour explaining the situation on the 12th during the attack on Nanking and the efforts of the air force to bomb Chinese forces fleeing on the river, the error in attack on the British ships, the air force reports of a successful attack on Chinese steamers carrying troops, the American inquiry to locate the Panay, the discovery of their great error, the efforts made to render all possible help in the rescue of the survivors, their complete sincerity in denying the presence of and attack by machine gun on the Panay by navy boats, their investigation of the [Page 511] persistent reports of such attack and their efforts to contact scattered military units for information and the receipt this evening of a first and incomplete report which shows that on the morning of the 12th an army (not navy) motor boat contacted the Panay and then proceeded down river to return a few hours later to find the Panay being bombed by Japanese planes and defending herself by machine gun fire which was also directed against the army motor boat which replied without effect. They explained that all high ranking military officers are absent from Shanghai but are being contacted for full investigation. I listened patiently and thanked them for their visit and information.
The fact that the army motor boat unit saw the attack on the Panay and did not report the loss of that vessel will need to be explained but the explanation undoubtedly will be difficulty of communication by the scattered units.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Hankow, Tokyo, and Peiping.