393.116 Standard Vacuum Oil Co./63: Telegram
The Consul General at Hankow (Josselyn) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 27—4 a.m.]
17. Standard Vacuum reports its vessel Mei Heng machine gunned October 19 in river at Changsha by Japanese airplane which dived over ship. Vessel hit by fire but no injuries or deaths. Planes later [Page 514] machine gunned immediate vicinity Socony pontoons. Vessels plainly identified as American. In Shanghai’s [1344] October 17, 6 p.m.,26a Japanese naval memorandum, paragraph 4, compliments Standard Oil Company on steps taken to render its ships bearing on the question recognizable.
Shanghai repeat to Tokyo. Repeated to Peiping, Chungking.