A Change in Routine

One afternoon last week Her Majesty's Motor Launch 1323 cruised on routine patrol through the Pearl River estuary near Hong Kong. Though the 72-ft. British vessel was well within the twelve-mile offshore limit claimed by Red China, Hong Kong naval forces had long patrolled these waters without running into anything more serious than occasional, desultory fire from Chinese shore batteries. This time, however, a Communist corvette closed in on Motor Launch 1323 and ordered her to heave to.

Heavily outgunned, the launch's skipper, Lieut. G. C. Merriman, 23, decided to make a run for it. But a Chinese shell slammed into the bridge, killing Merriman and four crewmen. A second shell landed aft, killing two more men. By the time the destroyer H.M.S. Concord arrived to give aid, the Chinese corvette was gone and the launch, none of her twelve man crew unhurt, lay crippled in the water.

The Royal Navy released only the barest details of the attack. The Foreign Office in London fired off a protest to Peking against the "wanton attack," and, in the stiff phraseology of diplomacy, reserved "the right to claim compensation."

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