Returning from a "'merey errand" to Hohsien, where he gave medical ald fo the victims of the aerial attade on the U.SS, Panay and snd ard-Vacuum "tugs, a Japanese aval surgeon reported yesterday that he had observed no. person suffering from rifle or machine-gun bullet wounds, according to a com: munique last night by the China Sen Fleet.
The doctor said he gave treatment to eight foreigners and thirteen Chinese, all of whom were injured by fragments of bombs and wood splinters. Additional ten foreigners were on the Injured list, but none of them bore bullet wounds, the communique concluded, Yesterday morning the army and naval spokesmen let slip an important and hitherto unknown tem of information—that Japanese soldiers, who were on the wharf near the Panay and Socony vessels, were wounded by machine-gun fire directed from the Japanese naval planes on the Chinese who were on Board the Standard-Vacuum Olt Co's vessels, Further questioning brought out the fact that so far, these Japan~ ese army units have not gent In any report, although presumably,,_ since they were near the Panay when she was bombed, they could have seen her flag and known that she was on American gunboat and that there would be many wounded, The spokesman characterized Acitious reports which the United States Department of State has made to the Japanese government _con= cerning the machine-gunning of the Panay from Japanese: armed units on board boats in the vicinity, The Japanese aviator wwe the was bombed opinion is that the Americans who reported being fired
ment.
confused these craft in the exelte-
The three Socony vessels, he went on, had about a hundred Chinese on board, and these wore machinegunned from the alr. the aviators believing they were fleeing Chinese units, "AS a niatter of fact," went on the spokesman. "after the Chinese reach ed the wharf, there were a number of Japanese soldiers on the wharf and these were shot and wounded by the naval fliers who. were tunable to discern the difference The spokesman admitted these solders on the wharf had as yet made ho report of the sinking of the Panay, although they must have been the first to realise that a gun boat of a friendly power had been bombed and sunk. The first inkling the Japanese had of the disaster came when they investigated reverts made by the aviators of the bombing of four Chinese ships, and this en-Quiry was started as a result of the USS, Navy's request for information about the Panay,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.