STOWAWAY REFUGEES

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 11

STOWAWAY REFUGEES

Criticism Of Treatment

LONDON, January 19. Three Hungarian refugees were still in London’s Brixton goal today after refusing to be shipped back to Brazil yesterday.

But their wives, who have also refused to leave Britain, did not know the men were in prison, according to an official of a London Latvian church. Mrs T. Priede, wife of the chairman of the church, said: “The wives are satisfied and happy because they believe their husbands are in safe keeping.”

She said her husband was writing to the Home Office to protest against the treatment the refugees received yesterday. The three men were detained in prison after the three families refused to sail back to Brazil aboard the Royal Mail liner Highland Monarch. They arrived in England as stowaways a fortnight ago. saying they did not like Brazil, but the Home Office refused them permission to stay. .Some British newspapers today were highly critical of the use of police in trying to persuade the Hungarians to leave.

A Labour member of Parliament, Mr Kenneth Younger, said he would ask the Home Secretary for a full report on the matter, “in view of the rather unusual circumstances in which violence was involved ”

British Request For Uranium

(Rec. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 20. Britain had turned to the United States for uranium fuel for use in future atomic power plants, the “New York Times” reported today. The newspaper said that officials of the United States Atomic Energy Commission had disclosed in Washington that Britain had requested the United States to supply “a substantial amount of slightly enriched uranium.”

While no final decision had been reached, the “New York Times” said, it was expected that the British request would be fulfilled as part of a broader agreement for closer atomic co-operation between the two countries.

Death Sentence In Jordan

(Rec. 8 p.m.) AMMAN, Jan. 19. A Jordan Military Court today sentenced to death a 25-year-old Army corporal, Tawfic Farhan, on a charge of spying for Israel. Three other soldiers were sentenced to terms of imprisonment from 10 to 15 years on similar charges. Three others alleged to be members of the same ring were acquitted for lack of evidence.

Texas Explosion.—A big explosion followed by a fire in a rubber factory shook Baytown, a coastal town in Texas today. First reports said there were many injured.—Baytown, January 19.