Later official Japanese versions of the incident, issued through Japanese Consulates in various cities including Shanghai, flatly denied that the Japanese planes had fired upon the civilian plane.
Observers here believed the United States might again protest to Japan over the incident if the Japanese version cited in the note to Washington claimed the C.N.AC. plane had not been machine-gunned. Bodies of victims recovered from the wrecked plane contained numerous machinegun bullets, leaving little doubt that the plane had been heavily machinegunned.
Meanwhile it was understood here that Japanese military authorities in Shanghai were drafting a statement in which all civilian planes in the China war zones would be subject to immediate attack by Japanese planes unless the schedule, course and identity of all passengers on the planes Rave been communicated to Japanese military officials in advance.—United Press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.