BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO CHINA CRITICALLY WOUNDED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 189, 27 August 1937, Page 5

BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO CHINA CRITICALLY WOUNDED

Press Association-

JAPANESE AERIAL ATTACK Car Machine-gunned and Bombed by; Two Planes * TRAGIC OCCURRENCE' REGRETTED

(By Telegraph— Per

—Copyright). ]

^Reeeived 27, 10.30 a.m.) SHANGHAI, Aug. 26. The British Ambassador to China, Sir Hughe KnatchbullHugessen, while motoring to Shanghai from Nanking, w&s bombed and machine-gunned by Japanese planes and injured in the spine and liver. He was taken to a hospital. His condition is critical. His military attache was also hit. The military attaehe, Colonel Lovat Fraser, was driving tlie ear, which was flying the Union Jack, when a plane swooped down and machine-gunned it, then dropped a bomb. Immediately aliead of Colonel Lorat Fraser was Mr. E. L. HallPatch, British adviser to the Chinese Ministry of Finance, who was also in the car. He was affeeted by the concussion but soon recovered. Mr. Hall-Patch rushed the Ambassador to hospital, where he was found to be shot in the spine and liver. i Apprehensiv* of two planes pursuing the car, the occupants were just alighting to take cover when they were machine-gunned. ! Sir Hughe, who was the last to emerge, was caught in the fusillade. Colonel Lovat Fraser had stopped the car and was getting out when the bomb fell. ' The Japanese spokesman expressed regret at the "tragic occurrenee" but added that the Japanese had not been notified that the i Ambassador was en route to Shanghai. Yice-Admiral Hasegawa has ordered the strictest investigation. The Japanese point out that- the car was inadequately identified and was travelling on a Chinese strategic highway. The British air attache is conferring with the Japanese. Sir Hughe underwent a blood transfusion, An official British Btatement says that he is in a serious condition but that there is : no immediate danger. fJ A London message says that Britain has protested .to . Japap ( regarding the attack.. United 'States officials (says a .Washington message) are ihocked by the wounding of Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugesson. It ; is believed that the incident mighf precipitate the gravest inter- i national complications. It is not antieipated that the United States 1 will take an immediate hand in the situation. It is believed that 1 the ^hands-off" policy similar to that of Britain regarding the fhelling of the United States warship Augusta indicated the possibility that such an incident had been of arave concern to tbe ! State Department. Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen has been Ambassador in China since 1936, and is aged 51. Educated at Eton and Balliol, Oxford, He entered the Foreign Office in 1908. He was attaehed to the British Delegation at the Peace Conference in 1919. Sir Hughe was British Minister to the Baltic States in 1930-31, and British Minister An Teheran in 1934-36. ■A