CHINESE TRICKED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27389, 15 May 1950, Page 5

CHINESE TRICKED

Captured British Vessel RESCUE BY DESTROYER NZPA —Copyright Rec. 11 p.m. HONGKONG, May 14. The British merchantman, Ethel Moller, reached Hongkong yesterday following her rescue by the destroyer Cossack after three months’ detention by the Chinese Nationalists. The Ethel Moller did not attempt to escape from the Cossack because the Chinese were tricked into believing the warship was Chinese. The Chinese did not appear to realise the warship was British until the Cossack’s boarding party was in the boats and escape was then impossible. , The Royal Navy said yesterday that the Cossack recognised the Ethel Moller while on patrol on the high seas in the vicinity of Chapel Island near Amoy. She stopped the Ethel Moller, placed' a boarding party on board without opposition, and “ assumed control of the situation.” Informed sources said that ,150 Nationalist soldiers were on board the Ethel Moller when she was rescued. They offered no resistance, and were disarmed by the? boarding party. It is not known whether the Australian captain, A. L. Waites, and the crew were on board the Ethel Moller when the Cossack found her. The Ethel Moller (564 tons) was one of five British ships detained by the Nationalists in the past three months. She left Hongkong on February 26 for Inchon, in Korea, but no further word was heard from her. Sources in Hongkong recently reported that she was being held by the Nationalist Army in the Chusan Islands, about 100 miles south of Shanghai. These sources said that Captain Waites was 'being held incommunicado. A sister ship, the Joan Moller, today reported that' a small gunboat fired on her this morning when she was about to enter Hongkong waters. The gunboat did not press the attack, and the ship was not hit.