American Notes THE NAVY

U.S. Navy policy calls for rescuing anyone at sea whose boat is adrift or in danger of sinking. Thus the service is investigating reports from among 52 survivors of a boatload of 110 Vietnamese refugees who were given food and water but not taken on board by crewmen of the amphibious U.S. transport ship Dubuque in the South China Sea on June 9. The refugees claim that their 35-ft. wooden boat was disabled at the time and that many were near starvation.

After the Dubuque continued on its way to the Persian Gulf, the Vietnamese say, they became so desperate that they drowned a boy, a young woman and a man, then boiled and ate parts of their bodies. Two children who had starved were also cannibalized. Before being rescued by Filipino fishermen on June 28, the refugees lost 58 passengers to exposure, hunger or drowning. The Dubuque's commander, Captain Alexander Balian, said the refugee boat was seaworthy when he saw it, but he has been removed from command while the inquiry continues.