HONG KONG ACCUSED

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30975, 3 February 1966, Page 13

HONG KONG ACCUSED

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) TOKYO, Feb. 2. China last night accused the United States of trying to use Hong Kong as the “springboard” for an attack against the Chinese mainland, United Press International reported. It warned Britain against allowing American warships into the harbour of the Crown colony. The warning and accusation came in a formal protest handed to the British charge

d'affaires, Mr D. Hopson, in Peking by the Chinese ViceForeign Minister, Wang Pingna. In another attack on the United States, the Peking Government charged that United States “Imperialists” were trying to weld a world-wide anti-Chinese alliance with the Soviet Union. Japan and India. The charge was made in an analysis in the official “Peking People’s Daily,” broadcast by the New China News ; Agency and monitored in ! Tokyo. It was not clear whether the Peking protest to Britain i presaged a Chinese move t against Hong Kong, which bor- ; ders on China. It said that since the last Chinese protest on September 1, Britain permitted the United States to use Hong Kong “ever more flagrantly as a base for expanding its war of aggression against Vietnam and menacing China’s security.” The Chinese said Britain was “quibbling” when it replied that Hong Kong was not being used by United States forces as a base for aggres-

sion against anybody. The Note said that during last year, American warships made 300 visits to the colony with more than 100 coming between November, 1965, and January, 1966. The September protest from Peking was mainly against the use of Hong Kong as a rest and recreation centre for United States combat forces from South Vietnam.

Though a series of objections followed, Tuesday’s protest was the first to charge flatly that the United States was planning to attack China. The protest noted that the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise and the nuclear destroyer Bainbridge arrived in Hong Kong last Wednesday. As many as nine warships were in the harbour yesterday, it said. The Note said the activity could be constituted a “serious provocation” against China and South-east Asian countries.

“United States activities of war preparation in Hong Kong involve grave consequences for Hong Kong,” the Note said.