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173 APPENDIX  REPORTS BY MINNIE VAUTRIN ON THE RAPE OF NANKING FROM HER CORRESPONDENCE  A Review of the First Month: December 13, 1937–January 13, 1938 An Informal Report to the Board of Founders, Board of Directors, President Wu, Mrs. Thurston and Members of the Staff of Ginling College. Confidential. Please do not publish. Explanation: My hope for days has been to write a very carefully worded report, but that hope has been given up due to the many interruptions that come each day. Each time I put aside a morning for this work it is finally used for other matters which seem at the moment more important. Have decided that if I am to get any report to you at all it will have to be a very informal and probably disconnected one. Please forgive lack of unity and coherence. M. V. Background: December 1, 1937–December 13, 1937. Our President departed from the College on the morning of December 1, although I think that her boat did not finally sail from Hsia Gwan until December 3. It was difficult for her to leave and even more difficult for us to see her go, but we at that time felt it was for the best and certainly conditions since have proved that it was a very wise decision. For the twelve days following her departure we worked at top speed for there were many important things waiting to be done. Before our President left she had appointed an Emergency Committee consisting of Mrs. S. F. Tsen, Mr. Francis Chen and myself, and this small committee has carried the responsibility through these difficult days. +X$SSHQGL[LQGG $0 174 APPENDIX It was fortunate that the committee was small for we could make decisions quickly—and we had to do that many times. Meal time—for we all eat at the same table—was often used for meetings and trying to think out the next step. Below I will give some of the many tasks that we performed during those twelve busy days, and something of the conditions in the city during that time. Putting up flags and proclamations: All day of December 1 we gave to selecting strategic places for the American flags which Gwoh, the tailor had made for us, deciding where the proclamations furnished us by the Defence Commander of the Municipality of Nanking and also those that had been furnished us by the American Embassy should be posted. In the end we had 8 flag poles put up on the outskirts of the campus, and the posters were posted at the gate and on all the outlying buildings such as the South Hill Residence, the laundry, the faculty houses for Chinese men and even up on the little house on the west hill. The large thirty foot American flag was still used in the main Quadrangle to let the aeroplanes know that the property was American owned. Previously Mr. Chen and I had finally found the old college sign boards used in the old Ginling and had them repainted—those boards that said “Great American Ginling College.” One of these we hung at the gate and one is in front of the Central Building. These we did not actually use until the Japanese entered the city but used their reverse sides which merely said “Ginling College.” Putting buildings in condition for refugees: For days and days our faithful staff of servants worked hard carrying all furniture to the attics or storing it in one or two rooms on the first floor. It was a tremendous job but later proved a very wise preparation. Altogether eight buildings were prepared, including the Practice School and the 400 dormitory. These latter two were never occupied because by the time the first six buildings were filled we had probably ten thousand refugees on the campus and did not have strength enough to manage more than that. Our ideals were very high in the beginning for we got out in poster form a carefully planned set of regulations that would help to make for healthful living, we trained a group of young people to act as scouts or ushers, we made a plan of the buildings and according to regulations furnished us we had room for 2,700 refugees [2,750, as stated in Vautrin’s Diary of December 7, 1937] in the eight buildings. On December 8 we received our first group—people who had previously evacuated from Wusih and Shanghai...

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