Sick U.S. Prisoner Freed By China

Press, Volume C, Issue 29480, 5 April 1961, Page 15

Sick U.S. Prisoner Freed By China

fN.Z Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 3. A State Department spokesman today welcomed the announcement by Communist China that it was going to release Mr Robert McCann, a cancer-stricken American businessman, imprisoned in China since 1951.

The spokesman said: “We share the gratification felt by Mrs McCann’s family at the report that the Communist Chinese authorities have announced his release.” The release was announced by the New China News Agency, which said it was on humanitarian grounds since Mr McCann had “recently fallen seriously ill.” Mrs Flora McCann, who had not seen her husband since 1948, was reunited with him last Friday and petitioned for permission to take her husband back home. Mr McCann was convicted in 1951 of spying against Communist China and was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. A United States Air Force aircraft is standing by in Hong Kong to take Mr and Mrs McCann to Clark Field, in the Philippines, immediately they arrive from Communist China, according to American sources. The sources said they understood Mr McCann was “very, very sick." and that an ambulance would meet the train bringing him from Canton to the Hong Kong border. The ambulance would take the couple to the arifield and

they were expected to leave immediately for the Philippines. where Mr McCann will be examined before flying to the United States. Mr McCann is reported to be suffering from lung cancer.