52
W. A. REYNOLDS
Methodist missionaries travelled with us to Pao-chi and we sat together against the front of one truck singing quietly as the train rumbled onwards through a star-lit night.
So we travelled through Shensi into Szechuan, our passengers making themselves comfortable with bedding rolls in the back of the trucks (Plate no. 18). Both girls had learnt English at University but considered my Chinese needed improving. Plate no. 19 shows Comrade Hu-nan at a roadside stop cuddling a small child who had been frightened. Interestingly the other, Comrade Yang, turned up in Chengtu a week after we reached Chungking and spoke to a left-wing group meeting in the dark in the Women's Dormitory of West China Union University of which my future wife was then Warden.
Travelling Arrangements
At meal times we distributed ourselves among the different fan tien at our stopping place. Our passengers slept at inns or in the back of the trucks while the crew slept in or on top of the cab. This latter was the best position.
After some years of experience as a transport organization the Unit had developed a relative sophistication in sleeping arrangements. The trucks used on this trip were, as mentioned, Canadian WD Dodges. These were adapted from commercial models and had heavier springs and bumpers and towing hooks. They were equipped with a steel and timber body with three-foot high sides, steel hoops and canvas cover. We fitted a wide board hinged to the front of the body which was kept in an upright position during the day and covered by the tarpaulin to which it formed a solid back. At night the front of the cover was cast loose and the board folded down on to the top of the cab forming a flat platform. There were also three or four loose boards laid along the hoops and these helped to support the canvas. When the front board had been folded down these roof boards were pulled forward three or four feet and a canvas roof was formed over the platform. There was thus a flat floor, two foot by six foot six, with two feet six of headroom above it and something to hang a mosquito net from. Here the taller members of the crew slept at night. The shorter members usually slept in the cab or found a reasonably flat place on top of the cargo. Sleeping on the truck was standard procedure for crew;