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continues and today two of the Christian Mission School build- ings in the south part of the city were fired, also Kiessling & Bader's a German concern. But Takatami, Chief of the Embassy Police calls and now promises protection for all foreign build- ings and starts out with Sperling to inspect German properties. Personally I think he is promising far more than he can deliver. What a list of claims Japan will have presented to her and it all seems so utterly needless for there are about a hundred foreign properties in Nanking and almost all have been looted by her soldiers. And the cars that have been stolen. I think I forget to mention yesterday Smythe and I called at the Bri- tish Embassy, which is in the far North-western part of the city, out of the Zone. All the cars, eleven of them had been taken by the soldiers, also a couple of trucks, but fortun- ately had fared pretty well. Every block or so one now sees abandoned cars, stolen cars that have been run to ruin, then stripped of their tyres, batteries and anything else useful and left where they are, usually overturned. There was a bright spot today though, and that was the arrival by that N.K.K. boat, through the Japanese Embassy of a letter to me from Dr. Fong See the first boat and only letter to come to any of us in all these past three or four weeks. He wanted to know if we might not be in need of funds for our relief work and offered to hold some of the money that was coming in, in response to our appeal through Rotary International. Fong all over. And we'll need additional funds alright, many thousands of them. I have a nightmare every time I think of what we'll soon be needing and where are we going to get it.
That's
December 28th. What we had feared, bad weather. A steady drizzle, then snow. The poor refugees living in huts, many no larger than a put-tent, will have a miserable time of it, for most of these huts are not rain proof. And then there is the sticky mud. But we have certainly been fortunate in having had ideal weather up to this. I inspected some of our camps today. The crowding in most of them is terrible and, of course, it is impossible to keep them clean. Our camp managers and their assistants, all volunteers are doing a splendid job on the whole in maintaining them, How long must we maintain these camps? When are the people going to be permitted to re- turn to their homes · those who have any homes left? When will order ever be established? I went over to the Y.M.C.A. school today for the first time. It is located not far be- yond my residence. Everything has been turned upside down and many of the instruments in the physics laboratory deli- berately smashed. On the Athletic field was a dead cow half eaten by dogs. The Embassy proclamation had been torn down.
December 29th. Weather better today fortunately. Registration continues, most inefficiently and the people are given no information as to where and when to appear.
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