HIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT)
SECRET
C. P. (49) 133
22ND JUNE, 1949
CABINET
COPY NO.
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BOMBING OF BRITISH SHIPPING IN THE YANGTSE
Memorandum by the First Lord of the Admiralty
The British merchant ship "Anchises" was bombed and machine-gunned by Chinese Nationalist aircraft on the morning of 21st June, at the mouth of the Whangpoo river. She ran aground and suffered casualties. She was again strafed on the morning of the 22nd.
2.
The Nationalist Government have proclaimed a blockade of Communist held ports; this we hold to be illegal, but they have in fact carried out several bombings of Shanghai during the last few days, without inflicting much damage; the Communist forces have little or no anti-aircraft defence, greater boldness may be expected in the future.
3.
At the time of the bombing a British warship, H. M. S. "Black Swan" was stationed at an anchorage in the Yangtse river, with instructions that she might intervene to prevent Chinese warships interfering with British shipping off the mouth of the Yangtse. But if she cannot do this without using force, she is to report before taking action. She is not allowed to go up the Whangpoo river, a tributary of the Yangtse on which Shanghai is located.
4.
as
When the "Anchises" was bombed, "Black Swan" moved up river to assist her, but finding her inside the Whangpoo she considered she could not help in accordance with her present instructions, and returned to the anchorage. The result is the unsatisfactory situation in which a British ship may be attacked and put in urgent need of assistance, with a British warship close by, and yet debarred from rendering such assistance.
5.
I feel, therefore, that there is an urgent need to amend the instructions to the British warship to make it clear that she is not forbidden, and indeed that it is her duty, to provide salvage or other humanitarian assistance to British shipping, even if this means going into internal waters.
6.
Two issues will have to be made clear if the present instructions are to be amended on the lines proposed above.
7.
First, warships do not have the right of entry into internal waters, and the Communist authorities at Shanghai have announced that warships may not come to Shanghai (or presumably enter the Whangpoo River) without their permission. This announcement is quite valid, as a normal rule, but it cannot be justified either in international law or in humanity if it is a question of a warship entering for the urgent duty of distant damaged or distressed shage 256 of 366"
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