ABSTRACT
The Japanese troops in the Shanghai-Nanking area had been raised through reinforcements from home to a quarter of a million. On December 6th preparations for the attack on Nanking were completed, while the Chinese systematically destroyed hangars and stores of petrol and ammunition, which they were unable to save. About midday on the 9th an aeroplane dropped a letter from General Matsui to the Commandant of Nanking, in which General Tang was advised to surrender the city without resistance by noon on December 10th. During the tension and disturbance which prevailed in the lower course of the Yangtze River, just before the occupation of Nanking by the Japanese, certain events occurred which involved extremely serious aggression on the part of the Japanese military forces against merchant vessels and warships belonging to neutral nations. On December 12th, the day before the capture of Nanking, the Ladybird was again under fire for several hours, both from the air and from field batteries.
