Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone : Dec. 27
| [ INTERNATIONAL COMITTEE FOR NANKING SAFETY ZONE : December 27, 1937 ] Dear Sirs: On December 1st when former Mayor Ma of Nanking turned over to the International Comittee responsibility for the care of the civilians in the Safety Zone, he asigned to the Comittee 30,000 tan (piclus) of rice and 10,000 bags of flour to be used in feeding the population. He agreed that this should be used at the discretion of the Committee: either to be given freely where needed, through soup kitchens, or to be sold to those that could afford it. [...] Between December 1st and December 11th, when your Army's attack on the city made it necessary to close the gates, our committee succeeded in moving 10,000 tan of rice and 1,000 bags flour into the Zone. The remainder we hoped to get as soon as the fighting was over. [...] Since the Chinese military had 100,000 tan of rice (besides our *30,00 tan) in the vicinity of Nanking, we plead that you allow us to get these 20,000 tan for feeding the 200,000 civilians. [...] John H.D.Rabe, Chairman. * diplomatic copy (PDF) ＊Dec. 27, 1937 "International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone" : From Yale University Library : NMP0175 |
[ LETTER TO JAPANESE EMBASSY : January 26, 1937 ]
Dear Sirs:
[...]
In his letter of November 30, former Mayor Ma promised the International Committee 30,000 tan of rice, and in another letter of December 3 he gave us 10,000 bags of flour. Later he verbally promised us another 10,000 bags of flour at the press conference.
On December 2 we received an assignment voucher for 15,000 bags of rice and on December 5 another assignment voucher for 5,009 bags of rice. Of this amount we were able to haul in only 8,476 bags and assigned 600 bags to refugees in Hsiakwan, or a total receipt of 9,076 bags containing ll,345 tan. But since the bag vouchers only totalled 20,000 bags, we can only claim 10,933 bags of rice as still coming to us when the Japanese troops took the city on December 13.
We did not get any of the 10,000 bags of flour for which we had a written assignment.
[...]
You will note that the above food supplies were definitely assigned to an international relief committee for use in its relief work in Nanking.
We would be pleased if you would favor us with a written reply of how your authorities wish to handle this matter in order that it may be perfectly clear.
[...]
John H. D. Rabe, Chairman.
(books.google.co.jp)＊Documents on the Rape of Nanking
or ＊nanjinggenpatsu.com
[ THE GOOD MAN OF NANKING ]
December 1, 1937 (page 43)
"Mayor Ma appears with his staff at the meeting and promises us 30,000 sacks of rice and 10,000 sacks of flour. Unfortunately we have no trucks for delivering these rations to the refugee zone. We can sell the rice and flour, but we have to fix the price."
December 2 (page 47)
"We're having great difficulty finding vehicles to transport the rice and flour placed at our disposal, some of which is stored outside the Safety Zone without anyone guarding it. We're told that large quantities have already been removed by military authorities. Allegedly only 15,000 sacks of rice are still left of the 30,000 given us."
December 7 (page 53-54)
"We've been able at best to get a quarter of the food promised us into the Zone, because we don't have enough vehicles, which are constantly being commandeered by the military."
"We brought 2,117 sacks of rice into the city today. It's doubtful that we'll still be able to get through the gates again tomorrow."
