Chinese Warship’s Alleged Attack On U.S. Freighter

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 November 1949, Page 5

Chinese Warship’s Alleged Attack On U.S. Freighter

I WASHINGTON,, Nov. 28 (Rec. 11.5 a.m.). —The American freighter Sir John Franklin has been fired on and hit 12 times, apparently by a Chinese Nationalist warship off Shanghai. No one was injured on the freighter, which is owned by the Isbrandtsen Line. The shelling was reported by the vessel’s master, who said that he was proceeding to Woosung, below Shanghai. The message said that the ship was not making water despite the 12 hits. The State Department which at first said the Nationalists were responsible for the shelling latex’ said that the message from the mastei’ of the Sir John Franklin was garbled in radio relay through Shanghai, and that it was not clear that the Nationalist ship was responsible. The department announced the report of the incident without comment. The department, after a recent attack on anothex’ Isbrandtsen ship, the Flying Cloud, protested to the Chinese Nationalist Government that American citizens had been placed in peril. The State Department spokesman said that the Nationalists had not replied to that protest. The Isbrandtsen company’s headquarters in New York today telegraphed th& State Department saying that two Nationalist warships attacked the Six’ John Franklin. The message said: “We cannot too strongly protest against these unlawful attacks upon our legitimate commerce, and against which attacks we have repeatedly asked you to take effective action.”