124.93/407: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 17—1:10 p.m.]
78. I have just had conversation with a reliable foreign observer from Shanghai who informs me that foreign properties in the neighborhood of Shanghai and within Japanese lines were systematically looted by the Japanese military forces. This information leads me to fear that a similar fate may await foreign properties in Nanking and although Japanese have informed me that Embassy property has been untouched, I am apprehensive that unless we have some one to go to Nanking very shortly we may find that not only Embassy property but property of other Americans in Nanking may have been molested. Repeated to Shanghai.