WOMEN FLY FROM
RIOT CITY Extrass
Mob burn British buildings
HONGKONG, Friday.-A hundred British women and children will fly tomorrow from Canton, South China city where a mob burned down the British consulate and
business premises today.
The refugees will be flown to Hongkong by a British airway which has cancelled regular Flights
The trouble started when the Chinese Government protested to: Britain against prison sentences imposed on two Chinese. These men resisted police clearing slums [in Hongkong's twin town Kowloon.
Demonstrators marched to the: Canton consulate shouting for revenge. Police escorted the consul-general, Mr. Ronald Hall, and some of his staff to safety. Then the mob attacked. Led by a uniformed nationalist Youth Corps, some stormed the consulate, smashed offices and furniture, and set them alight.
Others held
back the fire brigades and set ablaze the consul's house and an office block
CANTON
Canton.R
O
TUNG KUAN
SHUN TE
OHIANG SHAN:
CHINA
0 MILES 20
O SIN AN
LINTON |
KOWLOONS
E& China = HONGKONG
Sea
owped by the shipping firm of Butterfield and Swire, and housing the British information office.
Out of the burning buildings ran the British Press attaché, Mr. J. C. Murray, with his wife and the consul's secretary, Barbara Rolfe.
The vice-consul, Mr. K. Black- well, was slightly injured.
A British missionary and his wife Mr. and Mrs. John Williams are missing.
The British Embassy at Nanking protested to the Chinese Govern- ment, which expressed regret.
Tonight the Chinese Premier, General Chang-chun, ordered the authorities to protect Britons and their property. The rioters would be punished, he said.-Reuter.
Daily Express
17 JAN 1948
10