Britain Urged To End Shanghai Blockade

Chronicle (Levin), 20 August 1949, Page 5

Britain Urged To End Shanghai Blockade

LONDON, August 19. Reuter's Shanghai correspondent says the British-owned North China Daily NewSj the ^only independent foreign newspaper in Ohina, in an editorial today called on the British Government "to "take every possihle step" to end the Nationalist blockade. It described the blockade as a ridiculous and costly development which ought to have been nipped in the bud at the very outset. , The editorial is generally regarded as reflecting the views of leading British commercial interests in Shanghai. After stating that. the blockade was having no military effect whatsoever upon the activities of the liberation armies the editorial said' the British community, which was entitled to expect its Government to do something about it, had up to the present seen nothing effected which was at all apparent. "This is sure. No vessels in appreciable numbers are bringing goods of normal commerce to this port, and the British and other foreign communities are meeting huge losses which otherwise would he financed by trade/ ' It is reliably reported that the British community is contemplating direct representations to Whitehall urging effective measures to overcome the blockade.