Anti-Chinese riots rock Rangoon

Shots were fired when Burmese demonstrators attacked the gates of the Chinese Embassy here [Rangoon] last night [June 26] at the height of anti-Chinese rioting. Six shots were fired, and demonstrators said they came from the Embassy, but they did not know who fired them. No one was reported hurt by the shooting, but 17 people, six of them Chinese, were taken to hospital after violence elsewhere in the city. The riot began outside a Chinese school and spread to the Embassy and other sections of the city where crowds burned three buildings and 13 cars and destroyed another 28 vehicles. About 200 demonstrators attacked the Embassy gates and tore down a Chinese emblem. Authorities sealed off the China Town section of the city and police toured the streets dispersing groups of people standing at street corners. Fifteen cars were reported to have been set ablaze in the city to-day [June 27], and demonstrators attacked 25 Chinese houses and shops in down-town areas. Columns of smoke rose above the rooftops in many directions, and fire-engines frequently chased through the city, their sirens blaring. The clashes occurred because the Chinese students violated a Burmese Government instruction against wearing Mao’s badges. Trouble arose when the principal of a Chinese-dominated school objected to Chinese students wearing Mao Tse-tung’s badge. The Chinese students refused to obey and imprisoned the Principal. They marched around the school compound, chanting the thoughts of Mao. According to reports, four diplomatic cars arrived at the school later in the day and pamphlets and “Red Books” containing Mao’s thoughts were distributed to the students. A 5,000-strong crowd of Burmese gathered outside the school in the evening [June 27]. They sang the Burmese national anthem and chanted slogans to the students including, “If you cannot accept our policy go back to China.”