Passenger taken with bad grace

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33083, 25 November 1972, Page 15

Passenger taken with bad grace

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) HONG KONG, November 24. A Russian freighter, unwillingly carrying a Chinese businessman alleged to be a pro-Russian spy, sailed from Hong Kong today after losing an 11-day confrontation with the Hong Kong Colonial authorities.

The captain of the ship, the Kavalerovo, was under Hong Kong Government orders to take the Chinese, Ho Hungyan, to Vladivostock. The Russians obviously were angry at being given responsibility for Ho, who, according to the Government, chose the Soviet Union as his desination when told he was to be deported. But the Russian decision to sail with Ho was seen by some as an admission of Soviet complicity in his alleged espionage. Ho, who came to Hong Kong as a refugee from China after the Communists took power, apparently was prepared to invoke Russian displeasure rather than be deported to Chinas CAPTAIN BITTER From the time police took him on board the Kavalerovo on November 14, over the protests of the master, the Russians had fought to remove him from the vessel. Yesterday, acknowledging they had lost, they bitterly accused Hong Kong of action “unprecedented in international shipping practice." In a statement released to two Hong Kong newspapers which have been devoting banner headlines daily to the confrontation, the master. Captain Semen Maslov, said he was told if he did not sail with the alleged spy, “I as captain would be arrested and fined a large sum of money.” He added: “I have to emphasise also the cruel treat-

ment of official authorities to Ho Hung-yan, who was placed on board unwell and in a condition of shock, without any identity papers and money.” BRITISH PROTEST Ho was one of four men arrested by police when they broke an alleged Soviet espionage ring in Hong Kong four months ago. Two of the others, both Russian seamen, were deported after Britain protested to the Soviet Union about their spying. The fourth man, a Chinese, was freed.