Daily Herald
7.
17 JAN 1948
CHINA ORDERS:
ORDERS: 'STOP
‘STOP `ANTI-BRITISH RIOTS'
WOMEN FLY OUT OF BURNING ISLE
AIR-LINE TO RESCUE
Guard is clamped on consulates
AS 100 British women and children pre- pared to fly out of a riot-stricken island suburb of Canton last night, China's Prime Minister, General Chang Chun, warned all his officials: "Anti-British riots
must stop."
He wired all provincial and municipal authorities throughout China to put down with the utmost severity all attempts to stage demonstrations "on any pretext whatsoever."
Special measures must be taken at once, he said, to protect British Consulates and British property. Chinese officials would be held personally responsible for any negligence.
At the same time, the Gen- eral offered Britain his regrets for the burning by rioters of the British Consulate and other British-owned buildings on Shameen Island, Canton, yesterday.
But arrangements to fly British women and children off Shameen Island at dawn today were still in force last night. ·
Hong Kong Airways, a subsidiary of B.O.A.C., is to divert all its planes from the Hong Kong- Canton service, started only last Saturday, to carry out the evacu- ation.
A rescue plane took off the first load of 20 women and children early this morning.
Over bridges
At the time the decision to evacuate was made, there were fears of further anti- - British demonstrations throughout China. Although yesterday's riots centred in Canton, their cause lies 90 miles away, in the old city of Kowloon, on the mainland oppo- site British-held Hong Kong island.
Possession of Kowloon has long been contended between the British and Chinese. The dispute flared up again recently when the British authorities jailed two Chinese squatters" for resisting eviction from a section condemned as a danger to public health.
Yesterday's riots followed announcement that the Chinese Government had protested to Britain about the eviction.
an
Thousands of rioters crossed two bridges from Canton to the foreign" section on Shameen
Island.
Homes fired
Screaming and dancing, they fired the Consulate and piled fur- niture and papers on the flames.
Then they burned the homes of the Consul-General, Mr. R. Hall, and the Press Attaché.
Several other British-owned buildings, including a bank, ship- ping offices and a news agency bureau, were badly damaged.
Three hours after the rioting had died down, fire brigades and police arrived and the crowd was driven off the island.
Britain's Ambassador, Sir Ralph Skrine Stevenson, protested to General Chang Chun at once, to learn that the General had al- ready acted.
A formula
A formula for the solution of the Kowloon situation was believed to have been found at a conference last night between the British Ambassador and the Chinese Foreign Minister. Dr. Wang Shih-chieh.
The Colonial Office stated last night: "The eviction has been grossly distorted.
"A small number of 'squatters was evicted because their huts had no proper sanitary facilities and constituted a grave fire risk. The huts were not pulled down until the people living in them had been offered alternative accommoda- tion "