CANTON MOB SACKS BRITISH CONSULATE
PROCLAMATION OF MARTIAL LAW
NANKING, Friday.
Several thousand Chinese rioters to-day attacked and burned down the British con- sulate in Canton, the big com- mercial centre in South China. They also destroyed the house of Mr. Ronald Hall, the Consul- General, and the offices of a British shipping firm.
More demonstrations are threatened, and mobs of rioters are roaming the streets shouting anti-British slogans. The evacua- tion by air of about 100 British women and children is to start to-morrow. Shameen, the quar- ter where the riots occurred, has been placed under martial law.
Mr. J. Williams, a British mission- ary, and his wife, formerly Miss Linda Morse, are unaccounted for following| the sacking of the Consulate. Mr. Hall and several members of the Consulate were escorted out of the building by police when the mob out- side threatened to sack the building.
Then the attack began. The crowd, led by uniformed members of the San Min Chui youth corps, a Nation- alist organisation, smashed furniture and set fire to the Consulate archives. EMBASSY PROTEST
The British Embassy at Nanking made an immediate protest, and the Chinese Government to-night ex- pressed “regret" for the incident.
The offices burned down belonged to Butterfield and Swire. They also housed the British Information De- partment, Deacon and Co., and Reuters.
The attacks are believed to be part of the demonstrations in several parts of the country against the evictions of Chinese from the Kow- loon area of the British colony of Hongkong. The evictions have been made from huts condemned for public health reasons.
There are fears that the assault on the Consulate may fan the growing anti-British feeling in big Chinese cities into a wave of rioting. Sir | Ralph Stevenson, the British Ambas- sador in Nanking, has asked the Chinese Government to take all precautions.
Gen. Chang Chun, the Prime Minister, to-night warned all pro- vincial and municipal authorities to punish severely any rioters. He ordered special police protection for British consulates and the property of Britons throughout China. Reuter and B.U.P.
Daily Telegraph.
17 JAN 1948
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