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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1949.
World Copyright. · By arrangement with Kvening Standard.
The dear departed
mourners and which
*T′ was'far and away the through the
m o st impressive mounted the stand on. funeral in the history the comin rested.
"Relatives and friends of the
of Sequatchie County. The deceased," he said, "I regret to mortuary parlour was filled inform you that Congressmon with people from as far south Biddio, who was to have de
as Jasper and as far north as Pikeville, and nòxt to tho coffin was a wreath from the Governor | of the Stato-him- ̈ ̈ ̈
self.
SATURDAY:
ROSE
Evered tho eulogy,
will not be with up- on the way from Nashville his car off the road and broke an axle, Porhaps one of Ben's old friends would like to say a few words on his bo- halt"
All of which was only: Atting, aceing as
When no one came haw, the dead man
forward. the under- Was former State Senator taker looked over the assemblage Benjamin 3. Pardy, affee and tried again. "How about tionately known to the voters of you, Al Sanders?" he-said, Tennessee as "Good Old Ben."
"You've known the decoused all The room went quiet as the your ilfe." Senator's widow, a good-looking wonton In her thirties, took her seat in. the front row, and the servico-started with a
singing, "Lead. Kindly Light
When the hymn was finished the undertaker made his way
Captured By The Nationalist Navy
THE Chinese characters go which the Leong Beo for Leong Bee mean had brought into Shanghai "Gorgeous Success.". It through the blockade burst seemed a pretty good omen into flames, and the com- to fivo Britone in Shanghai missar fumed away in on September 5 last when, search of fire engines and signed on as the crew of the Kuomintang saboteurs. 800-ton British freighter,
Leong Bec, we went down. And that wasn't all. At to the Old Ningpo Wharf to midnight, half way to the join our ship and run the Yangtao mouth, our "pilot". blockade out of Shanghai.
heaved the ship to, and with his double Democratic pay In three months of took himself off in a sam- Communist rule, only four pan and was no more seen. other Shanghai foreigners Captain McCabe decided to had been able to get anchor and wait for the Communist permission to. next day.
leave. We felt Success waя
our middle namò. But there
+
We waited all the
was plenty of trouble SECOND DAY, and left for waiting, even FIRST DAY.
our, final blockade, run at
Thirty-five Customs. five past midnight on the searchers and eight Com- morning on the THIRD munist security police, in DAY.
BY SYDNEY SMITH
Sydney Smith, of the London Daily Express, was caught in Shanghai when the Communists took the city. A couple of weeks ago, he signed on with his wife as members of the crow of the blockade runner Leong Bee, and were enforced guests of the Chinese Nationalist Navy at Tinghai- until they were transferred to the Edith Moller on her release and departure for Hongkong.
NANDERS, a lanky man in a
loose-fitting sult, came for ward, looked down at the corpse for a moment and stepped on the platform -
"All right," he said, "I'll givo it a try. But it won't be cary, since there's little I can tell you about Ben Purdy and his achlevements you don't already know.
"Beb and grew up together and went to the same school. During the first war we were in the same outfit in France, and, when it was over, came home on the same. train. But from then on Ben started stepping a lot faster than I did.
"I opened a restaurant and most of the time was lucky if I had enough at the end of the month to pay my bread, bill. But Ben whb always had a good head for figures, took tho and money his uncle left him went into the mortgage
busi-
ness.
"As you know, Ben made a fortune; but it never made any different la our relations. Many's the time-he said to me, "If you ever need any holp, cali on me first. Just because I got two dollars more than you "doesn't mean we aren't pala.”
"Three years ago,
I was thinking of getting married to Clara Judson, but things hadn't Improved any at the restaurant and so I decided to ask Ben what he thought of the idea.
he
I don't think much of it,"
sold. "You've enough trouble supporting yourself, lot alone a wife. Han Clará ac- cepted?'
!
"I told him she had, and that I didn't know how to call off the wedding without hurting her feelings.
"'Send her to see me, cald Ben. 'She knows I'm your oldest friend and I'm sure: she'll Listen,'
***** “Well, you all know what happened. Ben not only talked Clare out of the wedding, but inarried her. himself. And, naturally, for quite a while
bitter.
when my However,
realised that what Ben had
Was
charge of a spotty-faced, The moon was full with a buck-toothed surly com scattering of pearly cloud, missar with a red star and a stiff breeze was blow- twinkling in his yellow can, ing. Wo had barely 30 miles gave the five of usa to go to reach the freedom three-hour search and of international waters, interrogation. before we where we believed there were pllowed to approach might be a British warship. the ship.
choppy At 2 a.m. we ran a three-knot. tide on a course That was the moment when For one and a half hours, the OFFICERS OF THE restaurant went bankrupt, A few
of which, on the snapshots
Captain's Ad- a scarlet tracer shell looped up British warship flashed us: LEONG BEE-Left to
line across the alry and whistled "What ship?" Shanghai which I had misally charts, traced
directly along tho words directly over our bridge.
right Chief Engineer Jock taken, showing 80mc "Closed to Navigation 1931 cold blue-white beam of The guards on our bridge and Carr, Captain Tom McCabe, beggars,
against in the radio room prevented alio Operator provoked the That was the unguarded chan- searchlight pinned us
Bernard are your plans? an the signal dn, answer, to the sky. But
but the Chinese commissar to a shouting nel McCabe had found in
Shanghal. fury. This was imperialist
lamp ordered us to heave to and warships replied and gave the Williams, First Officer Fred anchor, Captain McCabe
kept
ept Royal Navy our identity an a Vose. In foreground is one propaganda, Intended to
the Leong Bee plunging on at Chinese oil tanker, which is of of the ship's guards. (Daily full speed, while Williama similar build to the Leong Bee. tapped out a general call for. That is why for one and a half any Britich warship which hours the British destroyer might have been in the vicinity, stayed where the was,
misrepresent tho
Democratic Chinn I
11.0 W
was
given a re-education lec
ture, and the photo- At eight minules past two in graphs picturesque and the morning, the ship gava
sickening roll 20 degrees to
As we boarded the ship the commistar picked on
stopped. We were on the mud
.
Tho
Chinese
That night we met two other Chinese destroyers and one The Nationalist warship, the Japanese-built Nailonalist light. 1,400-ton destroyer Yung Ching, despite
Japanese butt cruiser.
com
And when it came, daylight the Chinese fisherman who, showed grimly above the sky had contracted for $30 line the bridge. mails and choppy seas, decided to try to sterling-to pilot Captain funnel of a Nationalist warship come alongside to put on board territorial waters her boarding party. She bungled Tom McCabe's Leong Bee just inside
it with the nclous, incom- down the Whangpoo River waiting for us,
petence of most Chinese au- thority--and There was enough flood tide
crashed into our at 8.30 in the morning to try to ride, buckled our deck and get the ship off before the war-battered our railing stanchions ship' made a move. For one and bridge support. hour, our engines thumped full ahead-an hour of agonising
to the bea.
suspense
mud.
ยก
the
Express).
on the
mil
with
*
done was best for all three of 116. And I told him so one day. Forget it, Guld Ben, *What
"I told him I didn't have any,
I were in your spot, ho said, Ta iry to find me a rich widow women-some sensible gal who is looking for a-good, steady fellow.'
ANDERS stepped off the plat- form and went to where the
-London Expresa Service)
POCKET CARTOON
Captain McCabe mado à point "Well, it appears that at the At dusk, as we turned closer of staying on his bridge the time Ben gave me this advico But our stall for time only Inland, the British ship moved whole morning, and the trigger his blood pressure was a lot Harmicas--were confiscated port. Then another, a shudder- won us five minuter, na three further out, and our last chance was never pulled. After that, higher than it ought to have relations were a file better. been. And all I can say in con- with gravo and elaborate ing 30lt, mother roll. Then she more shells passed overhead of rescue was gone thanks to
and burst in tall white moonlit the glib fellon of the
As the days went by, WO clusion is that greater love hath formality...
watched from the airstrip, only no man than this, that he lay In eight feet of water on aniere on our starboard side. Navy algnallers..
half a mile away, Mitchells, down his life for his friends. ebb tide, 11 miles to freedom We were in the bag.
Mustange and Canadian-built
"I thank you. and three hours to daylight.
Mosquitoes take off. bombed
P
Some
were going Shanghai, 80 miles away as the bomber flies, and some. went only seven miles away". where the Communists, with Junk- borno artillery, were steadily Widow Purdy was sitting. Sho closing in on the Nationalist took his arm, and together they headquarters
Chusan walked out to the limousine FIFTH DAY: Even our ar rival In the landlocked Ittle
Churan which was walling to take them group of islands,
While wo lay there, one to the cemetery, naval base of Tinghat had its Nationalist destroyer and on exciting moments. Within two destroyer escort were sunk by hours of anchoring, a 1,000-ton Communist artillery with Chinese Navy LCI crashed hands, and one of the regular beam on to our bows, knocked evening pairols, returned Said the commissar to the then flung ug bacie into
the awell lifted us,
-the stem around at an angle of two dead and 14 wounded. pilot, invoking the New Do
90 degrees, so that the Gorgeous Wo shuddered, groaned
. Success looked like a broken- mocratic Chinese First bumped one mile forward Hor Number One, Lleutenant nosed prizefighter.. Principle-Soak the that time. Suddenly, Wo
Kao, as he sprawled aboard, were free. We beat it back up asked us immediately: "Where Instead of "You will river at our top speed of eight are the members of the Com- swarm of Intelligence Foreigners: charge double." And it was and a half knots.
munist Parly, aboard this ship?" police officers, we were allowed We five supernumerary crew.of to lose face by being". Ignored the Leong Bee were transferred The Gorgeous Success Loft
for 48 hours, at the end of to the Edith Moller during the again, down another answept The FOURTH DAY found us which we were ordered from week-end of September 17/18 Next, the shipping agent channel, on the third night at under escort inside territorial the harbour and told to anchor Just as the Gorgeous Success
there waters the way in the in the adjoining Hght le Briton who had been all ten o'clock. At 11.30,
went were six-milles-to-freedom, then Nationalists Chasm Irlands goo
on to quarter unfor then a long pancil of headquarters.
where, we found the Futons, short food rations - and- -day ground in the mill of Ave,
Edith Moller,
une-third rations for the military government darkness against the sea on our
running of the auxillaries for quarter A blacked-out bureaucracy-was late with port.
During the morning.count of the days except that
From here, we began to lose cooling and refrigeration. the ship's papers. Proclaim warship. We were blacked out,
When We left her, the three Lieutnant Kao ordered.
Cap- ed the buck-toothed com
tain, McCabe to lower the Red on the SEVENTH DAY wo were European British officers and. Ensign. Said the Captain: "Not
boarded by Maring police who the 34 Singapore
Chinese You will publish. missar:
unless there's a gun in my ribs, accused us of having tried to British crew were being told by
zignal the Edith Meller by night. the ChinaCa The Enaign stayed up,
Nationalists in 48 K result, they disconnected Tinghai: "You are Communists From the warship”a-signalling
our raceiving and transthfiting and prisoners and we are taking That afternoon, a Nationalist aerials, although our bridge and you to Formosa to confiscate curious American-bulit destroyer joined radio lamp stabbed out this message: "How are you?”
room had been con- your ship and us. Shortly after, we saw two tinuously under ormod guurd. On the Leong Beo's
bridge, more destroyers on the horizon. The Marine police were a____(EDITOR'S. NOTE: THE Captain McCabe sald: Well, steaming parallel with to, just little tougher than the Navy Leong Bee has elmegy, been Then, 80 minutes before it's the right navy and told outside, territorial waters. One end on the FIGLIT DAY Bir released. Shofer Tinghal the Singhalese - radio officer, was a Brlilsh destroyer looking, chief, N, E. Owe, drew his gun- selorday miêu la te in wo'pulled out, a warehouse Bernard Williams, to answer for the Leong Bee and the other on Captain McCabs to perp him ---Hongkong COU. "Monday containing some of the car "Finn.
a Nationalist shadowing her of his bridge,
motalpg).
:80.
:
an apology in the Chinese press for having inconve nienced, the People's Libera-, tion Forces by delaying the ship" And that was do, too.
in
foo
on
the expected and
by OSBERT. LANCASTER
* We'distin, atare upon another - alage in the magnificont Satrappie of our people-to-Over- coma. crusking dinautites:
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