BRITISH SHIP STOPPED

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25955, 8 November 1949, Page 5

BRITISH SHIP STOPPED

CHINESE BLOCKADE OF SHANGHAI

EXCHANGES WITH ROYAL NAVY FRIGATE

(Rec. 11 p.m.) HONG KONG, Nov. 7. A Chinese Nationalist warship at the mouth of the Yangtse river to-day intercepted the British steamer Tsinan on her way to Hong Kong with a cargo from the Communist-held port of Shanghai. Negotiations between the two ships are proceeding under the eyes of a British warship, which is standing by a short distance away. The Chinese warship told the Tsinan that she would be released only on condition that she returned to Shanghai and discharged her cargo. The master of the Tsinan refused, and the negotiations reached a deadlock. A report from the Chinese Nationalist base in the Chusan Islands quotes the Chinese naval commander as saying that the British frigate Alacrity on Saturday defied a Nationalist warning to keep outside Chinese territorial waters. The Alacrity was then waiting to escort the Tsinan from the mouth of the Yangtse. The Chinese naval commander had said the Tsinan would be safe, but asked the British warship to “keep off.” The Alacrity is reported to have replied: “I. consider this area outside your territorial waters, and shall consider myself free to move as I like. I am obliged to carry out my duty of protecting British shipping on the high seas.”

The Chinese commander then signalled: “This is not the high seas. These are inland waters.”