THE CHINA ·MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1958.
THE LAST DAYS OF SHANGHAI
AZING out up on the river, the business man said to me,
You soo, there is a ship in
first; with on line in unte
Amethyst
the now Government placed began to take visible physi- of cultivating the arts of
peace. To the welfare of the people col toll.
seo her adopt indiscriminate
such methods was sickening to all who placed such high
entry in the Council strength to hopes in her Chambers of the world.
already. They are a
I've seen this town die at always it comes back.*
least three times, and
gime cared nothing for the
can recover.
within a week of the Com- for this show. First came take her
a limited manner.
to all who
people. And that is the way We were all assembled for church on Sunday morn the people of Shanghai
And as if ing, July 31, when the Con-
At last, at August began It did seem as if I was Victory Parade. One section no one's business. The whole interpreted it.
I that were not enough they entered looking tremen wrong, but neither I nor the of it formed up outside the thing turned me alck.
the news the business man were to know British school in Avenue had thought when China re- returned twice early in duty dously pleased with himself, to dwindle towards Beytem- that the ship that came in Halg, so we had a front seat awoke to power, she would and gave us another pasting. Slowly it was whispered ber. cane
place among the The raids were not much, from corner of the mouth to General Gordon would bo
such people. munist occupation of Shang- the military, and very smart grent nations of the world, but eventually, they got the eager car that the Amethyst permitted to enter Shanghai
would leave hal was the first and the last they looked. They marched and
these power plant, so electricity had made a getaway. Or to take away
course, a chole should make who were ready to leave.
As the time drew near, of its kind we were lo sec. in close formation as do the ridiculous sideshows to the Wa rationed, out to us.
We were weeks without a dimmified entry, but it was
dent to do so. The oc- there was an immense round Spirits rose very high, it was Russian troops, and also outmoded tribal chieftains just a matter of waiting, and swung their arms across like Hitler and Mussolini, letters, and it was not until casion called for a frolic of farewell parties. One
People's Liberation soon business would pour in. ways as they marched, so it yet here she was, starting the
some introit from the organ, said "goodbye" Business did not flow in, was easy to see that their off in the old Fascist manner Army won their last battle and such Psalms which call were leaving, and then the but on the other hand there training was provided by with a childish puppet show somewhere in the South that for a lusty shout of "Praise Gordan failed to turn up. It were signs that life as it was Russian officers.
for her people.
the postal service began to ve Him, sun and moon; was coming tomorrow; the known to the Shanghai-
As they came into view, Our P. T. master, in a operate again.
praise him, all ye stars of next news was that it was lander, might be restored in I felt like singing "For the jovial mood, began to give Amal to show how much light." I felt that the least coming next week. At the Yanks are coming," for the them cat-calls, so silly and people outside cured or knew the Dean could do was to Country Club, a huge fare- Thursday, June 9
were was equipment was best G. 1. exaggerated.
their about Shanghai, we were lead a dancing procession up well party was held when the occasion of the Official pattern, even to most of the litler-patterned anti-racial asked why we did not write, the centre aiste, while the the news came, "The Gordon Birthday of IIIs Late steel helmets. But i slogans. I led the way inside and were we having a good white gowned choir chanted is nut coming." Obviously, Majesty, King George VI, following I thought was in case the authorities below time.
one of the glorious psalms. such news called for a flush and to celebrate this, our shame. Somewhere along took this good intentioned As the weeks passed it be- As it was, the Te Deum al- of wit; some wag snid. “We Consul-Generid and Mrs Ur- in the procession was it citnfling too seriously.
came increasingly obvious must shattered the stained are being led up the Gordon quhart held an At Home. millitary ambulance, I read But Shanghai had good that Shanghai was not going glassed windows, and it was path."
At last, the long awaited Well, there were we. His the inseription on it. It reason to lose its sense of to re-open, and the question some minutes before the Majesty's subjects sporting was subscribed or by a humour about the Civil War. of retrenchment began to dust resettled in the out-of-ship did show up, and on in the lovely garden of the Middle West Town. Not On July 28, four heavy Consulate, and there were that I thought the inhabi- they, the Communist tants of this small Stales soldiers, quartered in town had scraped and save building overlooking us. for it, but they had given it wondering what it was al in good faith to their own about.
boys, and their boys had in turn passed it on to their allies, and here it finished up in the Communist Victory
Liberation WE began to hear less
Procession.
HO were awarded ment.
and
cost
"Our New
the
"Wo said goodbye to our Ambassador, Sir Ralph
Stevenson."
Masters" privilege, to that we who we Masters"
by John Luff
It had
A
very very
began to doubt if we had followed them out later had corporeal existence. a dreadful time having to në- New faces appeared on the count for the last collar stud streets of Shanghai. Huge including in our inventory. tough looking men of grim unsmiling. visages who gazed few weeks later, the into the shops at the un "Joffre" sailed into Shanghai believable displays of silkis and took off the stragglers, and satins. Their women the Saturday, September 10,
and such who had changed folk who seemed unsuited fo the-way placen ilke organ loft.
1949. sho sailed
away their mind during the inter- auch trivials as gossamer, The drill was, not to ap- from Shanghai.
vening weeks. Shunghai showed a most unbecoming pear happy, and if you know to be, but I felt really seemed empty, and all the reed for plutocratic luxury. what it is to be bursting sad for those for whom fun had gone. More than Then things became tough,
there was a sudden
tough. These with joy, and yet having to Shanghai was home, for that, contain it, you will know they knew no other. They change in the relations be were our new masters come something of how we felt. loved the place. To me, they tween our new masters and to teach the Chinese how to ourselves. A certain grim- play the revoluţionary Telephones were lifted, and had no place in the world of
1949, but that was not their neas settled upon the town, game. But what a game. It "Have you heard....?"
Next day the Chinese fault. Their misfortune was hard to define, yet apparent was not a new game. Who
to be matched with the hour in all our dealings with the over controls the mob con-
Chinese.
trols the government. The ferocious mobs which spawn- There were no photographs, when China said she would but various woodcuts ahow- no longer tolerate an alien
ed from the terrible Quartier ed, right out of perspective, privileged race whose only
de St Antoine taught the savage British sailors run claim to superiority was
Directorate that innocent junks that they were the heirs of
And so had Lenin ning down
His Britannic Majesty's Icsson. and machine-gunning the a ruthless commercial breed N Friday, October 14, French
victims of their who had seized treaty rights
Mrs shown the world that a pro drowning savagery. This incident In China's hour of physical Consul-General, and
Urquhart
cocktails tesional revolutionary un brought a marked change in weakness.
assembled derstands such things. existing be- But go they did. And it to the relations
But surely China which Among them were
the barbaric tween our new masters and is the honour of the new guests.
rulers that they were all the Commonwealth Am- despised
of Europe would the British community.
To such Britishers ns I, allowed to depart with bassadors, and our guest of methods
courtesy afforded honour was Sir Ralph and never follow such teaching. who have made an attempt every
It was a Perhaps she was in no posi The the roal them.
authorities Lady Stevenson. understand to
press
knew
bounds. no
Liberators returned to bomul 118. What the Nationalista thought they could accom- plish by this spiteful action, I do not know, It 18
take practical form. Every- spiteful. characteristically
thing was decided about so, because it needed more than four planes to turn the leaving except the method Such of getting away. war at that course of the
members of the professional moment. What it did do, so and business community who and less about the
The Chinese civilians who bad was. the bomb-uiming had become redundant Our news- outside world. piper,
miss the electric wound up their affairs, but The North China had been ordered to join the was to Daily News,
seemed conducted procession
very power plant, their apparent their salaries and repatria- its affairs 09
slay threa if nothing sheepish about it, especially target had happened. No mention when they had to wheel hundred innocent Chinese, tion allowances were con- tinued up to such time they was made of the news that effigies of red-nosed Uncle their own people. As far as could get away. This alone interested us most how Sam and corpulent Winston I could gather from the
business firms were things down South? Churchill along. Apparent Chinese, it was this action What was happening out ly, these two were the prin- that turned the scale in hundreds of thousands in side? And most important cipal warmongers of the favour of the new Govern. Sterling, because, as there was no trade there was no of all, what was going to world, happen to us? However, honourable places in the
money available in Shanghai and Sterling had to be brought in from outside. the paper appeared as deli- march. cate and unassuming as a
Too much was at stake to polite literary magazine, and for that link we were
venture a clean cut of losses, grateful
but the plan was, cut down expenses to a bare minimum, and wait and hope for the best. To add to this enorm- ous overhead expense were the wages
of the Chinese stuff. They could not be paid off while the firm was in existence even though they did nothing, month in and month out. Of course, China, such methods of were reasonable, the Cus- strange feeling, for after we tion to bargain. But wo Authorities were ex- hud said goodbye, there was were in the bag and in no such a decision made the publicity, designed to foster toms new Government very hatred, came as a distinct tremely lux, acting on the an atmosphere of loneliness, position to bargain.
after all, We were left alone, without popular, but the strain on disappointment. To us, they premises that
who make their representation in a strange irms of limited capital and secried a retrogade step, a people
Our masters were resources was intolerable, deliberate immitation of the homes in a foreign land are land. and many men who operated Nazi-cum-Goebbels method. bound to accumulate con- strange. They seemed to be real strength lies siderable property. in only a local sphere found China's
Unfortunately, it impossible to meet their in her extremely high cul-
abused requirements. The strain ture and her long tradition foreigners
Then came the Liberation
also
Kai-shek Chiang figured along as the dis- credited leader of a defeated government, and what was going to happen to him was
110
Last week I pointed out that the Communists went to endless pain and
Nee that trouble to civilians suffered, and wait- ed weeks outside Shanghai to soften up the place. The plain and simple truth was,
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The Winter Of Discontent
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