Book Incident

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31462, 31 August 1967, Page 11

Book Incident

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, August 30. Chinese diplomats stormed out of their Legation in London yesterday and threw themselves on police with clubs, bottles and shrieks of abuse.

One Chinese held a gun and another hit a policeman with an axe.

After a 15-minute fight, two police officers were taken to hospital and three Chinese were carried off on stretchers. The disorder began at lunchtime in a mews alley just behind the big legation building on Portland place. People watched from neighbouring windows in alarm. One woman threw down flower pots at

the Chinese, another tipped out buckets of water. There had been another scuffle at the front of the building earlier in the day. One policeman was injured in that fracas. The second one started when the Chinese Charge d’Affaires, Mr Shen Ping, drove back from the Foreign Office after delivering a protest alleging that police had roughed up one of his officials. Mr Shen’s car was followed back by a police car, as has been customary ever since the British Government ordered movement restrictions on the Chinese last week in retaliation for the burning down of the British Embassy in Peking.

When the police car drew up in the mews, about 20 Chinese darted out of the

Legation garage and sun rounded it.

They banged on the roof and refused to let the car move until the officers apologised for insulting Mao Tsetung by allegedly snatching a Mao badge from a Chinese official earlier in the day. Police reinforcements arrived to clear a way for the car. As they did, more Chinese poured out of the Legation and pitched into the officers.

At the height of the battle, police estimated there were about 30 Chinese struggling in the alleyway. Somewhere in the middle of it was believed to be Mr Shen Ping himself. Officers afterwards reported that one Chinese waved a gun at the driver of the police car.

The British Foreign Office said that the first fracas, at 11.20 a.m., started when a bystander knocked a book of Mao’s thoughts from the hand of a youth who had obtained it from the mission. About a score of Chinese rushed out, knocking over a policeman. After the second incident, 90 minutes later, three Chinese were detained in hospital and another five walked there for treatment

Once policeman injured in the scuffle was detained in hospital. The injured photographer needed eight stiches in his head.

About 1000 people, held back by police cordons, were still milling round near the mission late tonight Some had learned the Chinese words “foreign devil” and shouted them across the street, others called for the return of the deposed nationalist leader, Chiang Kaishek, to the mainland.