Office of the Historian

394.115 Panay/163: Telegram

The Commander in Chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet (Yarnell) to the Chief of Naval Operations (Leahy)93

[Shanghai,] December 20, 1937—10:56 p.m.
[Received December 20—9:02 p.m.]

0120. At press conference by General Harada, Japanese Military Attaché, he said that Japanese boat which bombed Panay at 1100, 12 December gave warning that the vessel was in dangerous zone, that Panay fired at Japanese troops on shore with main battery, and that the army boat which boarded the Panay before she sank did not machine-gun the vessel before boarding. These statements are entirely contrary to all evidence given by survivors to Court of Inquiry.

  1. Copy transmitted to the Department by the Navy Department.↩