CO129-570-13 Sino-Japanese War- Japanese attack on a fishing junk 23-5-1938 - 10-12-1938 — Page 32

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Further evidence of Cheung Yan-lei, master of

Jun Mo. 2012 H..

Note:- "itness' eyesight is not very strong, and a test was

carried out from the verandah of the Secretariat for Chinese

ffairs building to see how good his eyes were. Weather was

vercast, but light somewhat trying. He could not see any

of the four flags flying from the yard-ara of H. 1.S.Medway

half a mile away, but could distinguish a group of soldiers

in a military lorry about 100 yards away. I have not seen

te binoculars he said he used to scan the strane vessel,

but doubt if they would help him do more than distinguish

the main outlines of what he saw,

He stated:

1.

"The strange vessel I saw approaching appeared to

be a motor-boat, but I cannot really estimate how close it

got to me at its nearest. It had no funnel that I could see,

and only one mast for'ard with no other mast at all; the ship appeared to be grey. There was a flag on the mast that stood

out clear as it wind streamed it out; the flag was a white

one with a red ball in the centre.

2. "I cannot draw". This was in answer to a pencil and

paper being given witness and his being asked to try and sketch

a rough outline of what he saw. Tarious shapes of boats with

differing masts and superstructure were then sketched to

witness, who directed no as to what was wrong until the attached rough outline was finally agreed upon as being as

correct as he could say.

3. "I observed what I did cowering down behind the poop gunwhale, and peering over the top with the aid of my bin culars The binoculars were not very good as they only cost $2 or $3.

I covered because I took the ship to be a Japanese one. I

have never met with any pirates all my 52 years."

(SD) J.C.MCDOUALL.

Assistant Secretary for Chinese

7.11.108A

Affai