AIR ATTACK ON BRITISH LINER NEAR SHANGHAI

Chronicle (Levin), 22 June 1949, Page 5

AIR ATTACK ON BRITISH LINER NEAR SHANGHAI

Warship Ordered To Protect Sfaipping From Interference c . Received Wednesday-, 11 a.m. LONDON, June 21, The Blue Funnel liner Anchises which was one of the first British ships sailing for Shanghai since the reopenirig of the Whangpoo, was bombed and machine-gunned by um identified aircraft this morning off the entrance to Woosung, The Anchises was bound from Kobe. The incident foilowed a Nationalist Government warning ^•orn Canton that all ©ommunist-held ports were closed to foreign shipping and any vessels calling at such ports would "do so at their own risk.

The agents for the Anchises (90U0 tonaj reported that she was dive-bomoed and macnme-gunned whne proceedmg througn the ihannei m the Whangpoo leaaing to Snangnai. The snip is now beaehed m the channel with the engme-room flooded. Four membtis of tne crew of about 67 were 'njurcd, one seriously. The attack -s reported to have oeen made by Nationalist fighter-hombers. Referring in the House of Commons to tne bombing of the Anchises near Shanghai, the Underoecretary ior roreign Affairs, Mr. C. P. Mayhew, said that the unwarranted attack from the air on a defenceless British merchant ship foilowed yesterday's radio announcement of the umne.se Government of its intention to blockade the ports in Communist hands. I A representative of the British ' Ambassador at Canton had made an mimediate protest and Britain had reserved the right to demand i'ull compensation, added Mr. Mayhew. An Admiralty spokesman said tonighl in relation to the Anchises incident: "The presenfc instructions to a British warshiu which is stationed off the mouth of the Yangtse River are that she is to

interyene to protect British shipping there from interference. "At Shanghai itself and in the Whangpoo' River the task of protecting property is presumably the responsibility pf the Communist authorities, who are believed to have large forces there for that purpose. Our warships have not been qp the Whangpoo River since tbe -Cdmmunists seized control of the area. "After the Anchises was bombed. H.M.S. Black Swan moved up the Yangtse to assist her, but finding her inside the Whangpoo River she eonsidered that she could not help If the Communists cannot protect the approaches to their own city I suppose the policy will be reconsidered," The United Press' Shanghai correspondent says that one bomb fell on the Anchises and that a Nationalist plane returned to strafe the vessel. The Anchises was beaehed Vvith a gaping hole amidships, four miles north of Woosung, near tne mouth of the Whangpoo. In Canton, the Nationalist Government, which said that the blockade would not become effective until June 26, is disclaiming ali responsibility for the damages Incurred.