VANCOUVER - The latest wave of Chinese nationals to arrive off the West Coast were to begin immigration interviews today after their ship was seized following a brief attempt to outrun the Canadian navy.

An estimated 150 to 170 people, most of them men, were transferred from their vessel to the destroyer HMCS Huron about 30 kilometres off Vancouver Island yesterday. They were to arrive last night at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt in suburban Victoria.

``There are no immediate signs of medical distress,'' George Varnai of Citizenship and Immigration Canada said.

Varnai said the latest arrivals - the fourth boatload caught by Canadian officials off the B.C. coast in less than two months - suffered ``the usual ravages of a long sea voyage.''

The ship, which had the earmarks of a human smuggling vessel - no name or flag - first ignored demands to stop and sped up briefly in an apparent attempt to flee, said Lieutenant-Commander Chris Henderson of Maritime Forces Pacific.

``With a very large and sleek warship bearing down . . . and a number of helicopters and a patrol plane making their presence very clearly felt, the master of the vessel evidently thought better of trying to run away,'' Henderson said.

The latest migrants are also believed to be from Fujian province.