SUPPLIES FOR HANOI Demand For Action Against U.K. Ships

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31360, 4 May 1967, Page 13

SUPPLIES FOR HANOI Demand For Action Against U.K. Ships

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright)

WASHINGTON, May 3.

A United States Congressman yesterday demanded action against British ships supplying North Vietnam and claimed that at least three British vessels carried “strategic” cargoes there in the last three months.

“We must find some means to stop this flow of material that is being used to kill our fighting men,” Mr Charles Chamberlain, of Michigan, told the House of Representatives.

He claimed that of 14 Western ships which entered North Vietnamese ports in the first quarter of this year, 12 were British.

The cargo aboard three of the British vessels was so highly classified that it could not be discussed in public, he said. “We can only assume that all of these cargoes are urgently needed by Hanoi.” Mr Chamberlain used his charges to support demands in some Congressional circles that the United States drop its sanctions against Rhodesia while Britain continues to trade with Hanoi.

“When, in all our history, have we tolerated friends that do business with our enemy, and at the same time ask us to support them elsewhere,” he said. Counter-Attacked

From Saigon it is reported that elite North Vietnamese troops today counter-attacked against United States Marines guarding the bloody slopes of Hill 881 they had won after three days of fighting.

The North Vietnamese got to within hand grenade range before being repulsed. They stormed out of the surrounding jungle at dawn

up the mile and half long ridge they evacuated yesterday and swarmed into some bunkers and fortifications the Marines had not blown up. With small arms fire and mortar shells bursting in their ranks, the Marines held their defence perimeter. At times there was face-to-face combat

The battle for Hill 881 followed a Marine push that broke up a North Vietnamese plan to encircle and smash a major Marine base just below the North-South Vietnam border.

The Marines jumped before the North Vietnamese drove them back and took control of the cave and bunker-infes-ted slopes of Hill 881. The Marines pushed up to Hill 881’s twin summits late yesterday and raised the United States flag on top.