FEC139/2
PART
DO NOT RETAIN FILES AND PAPERS UNNECESSARILY RETURN THEM TO REGISTRY FOR
B.U. OR P.A.
1966/9
YEAR
STAMP
SE
N.E
UP
(N.B. The grading of this jacket must be the same as that of the highest
graded document comained in it. The appropriate upgrading slip must be
affixed when ever necessary,)
CONFIDENTIAL
IN AND COMMONWEALTH
DEPT.
OFFICE
Contents checked
for transfer to
D.R.O.
(Sgd.).
Date
FAR EASTERN
FILE No. FEC13C/2 (Part ) TITLE: CHINA FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS : IN:
DETENTION OF NORMAN BARRYMAINE
REFER TO
NAME
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DATE
NAME
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DATE
16.6
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N.B.
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(N.B. The grading of this jacket must be the same as that of the highest
graded document containest in it. The appropriate upgrading slip must be
affixed when ever necessary,j
CONFIDENTIAL
YEAR STAMP
1960/9
Enter
17/11
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
19 OCT 1969
The man they said was a spy tells the story of his ordeal
19 MONTHS IN A CHINESE PRISON
"I confessed. Who wouldn't?"
re
By NORMAN BARRYMAINE
While the eyes of the world were on other hostages of Mao, a 69-year-old
British journalist who had been operated on for cancer was with grim
fortitude quietly enduring the hardships of a Shanghai gaol. Released
this month, Norman Barrymaine, who had been writing articles for The
Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph Magazine, tells of tho pressure
he was subjected to and how he was able to survivo. 7EARILY I sit up on
the Whard board bed, auto matically checking the time by the friendly
star's align- ment with the centre bar of the high window. My watch had
been taken from me 19 long months before when handcuffs had been snapped
on my wrists and I was charged with spying. I judge it is about
midnight.
The grey prison is monas tically quiet. Then a warder clears his throat,
a sound like tearing calico. A sharp, metallic ring as phlegm hits metal
tells me his ai he has hit the edge.
olf,
i
I settle back to seek sleep
again, pulling the shabby pale-blue cotton quilt around my ears. The
wind from the open window is chill
An unexpected noise brings me sharply awake. The six- inch observation
trap in my door has been closed.
Nor- mally it is open, and every half-hour a pair of eyes check The key
presence.
in the grates metallically in padlock.
my
I sit up, suddenly colder' than even a winter wind could make me. At
this hour
The bolt is slammed back with a clang that
clang that echoes through the building. The two-inch wooden door opens.
The expected warder is not there in the dim light, but a security
officer, who with peremptory gestures orders me to dress. I stagger to
my feet. My old bones have
never come to terms with the hardwood bed.
Nervously I fumble with the buttons of my unironed shirt. Impatiently
the officer indicates that I am to hurry. I pull on my trousers, two
sizes too big due to a near-starva tion diet for 19 months. What, I
wonder, is to be my fate
now ?
I have never been in a court. I &m completely ignorant of the legal pro-
cedure of the China of Mao Tse-tung thought. For the first time since my
imprison- ment began I am thoroughly 'frightened.
# months earlier * Few prisoner had been taken from his cell and shot.
It was 12 months since last I had faced interrogation: 48 weeks of worry
and appre- hension: 1,440 minutes, most of them awake, of dreariness,
deprivation uncertainty.
I had agonised over this moment many times during these long mouths of
waiting. What would be my reaction when I faced the moment of truth? Had
it come?
Inside the door the public security man gestures me to sit down in the
iron-wood armchair-so heavy that you
cannot move it-facing 4 desk. One officer is already seated at the
table. He is the interpreter. The officer who had awakened me walks
round the desk and takes the centre chair. The interpreter hands him a
thickly bound volume-my confession.
The
I
interrogation, assume, is beginning all over again. I recall that not
long after my arrest the officer in charge of my case warned me that
unless I confessed all my crimes the interrogation would go on six
months, a year, two years, or longer, and might even be resumed after I
was sentenced.
"Do you repont your crimes?" ho asked icily
of
| tonaries are paper tigers.
appearance the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they From a
are not so powerful. long-term point of view, it is not the
reactionaries but the people who are really powerful,
|
The interrogator looks at me icily. A long minute's silence, then the
harsh question: "What have you been thinking these days 1
Η
When is my case to be settled?" I ask.
"What have you been think- Ing about your crimes ?"
"I regret that I infringed the Whangpoo River regulations relating to
photographs,
"Do you repent your crimest" "Yes"
H
The interrogator, a short man with a beaky nose, is flicking over the
pages of my confession. He finds the page he wants. Another question
Another
+ +
1
question .. Another question An hour passes. I still don't know if my
case is being re opened.
Then the mood of the Interro- gator changes. He speaks softly
"How is your health 7" "Not very good."
DOW.
From his tunic pocket the
"What are your troubles ?" officer takes out his red-bound quotations
from
"I am suffering stomach and voluine Chairman Mao. This is normal
abdominal pains after meals. But procedure. No-one in China. I am now
taking some new medi- today can successfully accom cine, which seems to
be help- I walked out into the ball, plish even the most rudimentary
ing" and gnawing
followed the security officer to the one-storey building with 26 tiny
rooms in which you confess your crimes the con- fessionals, I call them.
+
|
task without the inspiration of Mao-thought. He opens the
+
"Do you think we have taken
volume, dicks over the pages,, good care of your health ?" and in
Chinese begins to read. || "Yes, I do." Da stein, respectful voice the
interpeler intones: All reac
ر آتی
G..
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Cutting slated
19 OCT 1969
-
By now I aut wondering why this new line of questioning. May I now begin
to hope?
What have we done for
*I have been in hospital four times, three lor renal infection and a
long period last winter for my blood pressure."
The interngalor is writing it all down
"What
at the operation
we performed1"
I am puzzled. "What opera tion?"
"The option for the soft tumour on your back.
H
H
"I am sooy. 1 had forgotten; it was so long ago."
The interrogator goes on writing. A third officer enters the room and
takes the vacant the speaking Without seat. interrogator looks up from
his notes. "The uvw oficer pods his head. The interrogator indicates I
should stand. He pushes the "Sigo notes across the desk, it."
H
I pick up his fountain pen and sign the list five pages. I am
signing
the sixth and final paze
as the interrogator says; "Write *This is my confession and it is
correct",
He is pushing a red-ink pad
across the desk. ́ ́ Put your right thumb print on each page."
As we walk back to the cell I hear Chinese prisoner in another
coalessional room being Poor devil. My cell grilled. door closes. The
bolts cling. I 10 the undress, walk across window, check the time by my
star. Two hours of the night have slipped away. I lie down and in a few
minutes lose con- sciousness.
Lawake, and against reguls, tions I get up, throw off" my quilt, pace
the cell floor. Á warder is looking through the trap. He signals me to
go back
to bed.
г
A few minutes later the bell to get up echoes through the binding The
warder slains the trup 2. 1 take off my under give myself my and
bath. The not too bad, Gng how many cars before we have the
west wind.
+
My morning daily dozen are exhilarating. I dress and say my prayers. It
is about 7 o'clock. My bottle of ink has not been deliv ered by the
warder. This is ua usual
·
Time passes. Again the key grates in the padlock. The door opens, and a
warder is gesticulat- ing with his hands for me to pack up my
belongings, but not Tay quilts. I now know I am leav ing the prison.
Previously when they had changed me to different cells I was always made
to take the bedding with me.
The warder leaves me and Thirty again closes the door. minutes later the
door opens again to reveal the Interrogator. He motions me to follow
him.
We walk a short distance to e small room just outside the main hall of
the prison. In the court yard crowd of rubber-necking warders, their
wives and child- ren peer at me impassively. In the room is a
photographer and apparatus for Bnger printing. I am finger-printed and
photo- graphed many times.
On my bowed head a
lenient penalty
The interrogator then leads me to what I had dubbed the grand committee
room, in which most of my interrogating, was › done. I am ordered to sit
down. Immediately I am told to stand up. A plump officer rises from his
chair, holding in his band a thick paper document.
"Bow your head."
He reads the indictment. I am guilty of spying. I am guilly of
slandering Chairman Mao, But I have confessed my crime and I have
changed my attitude, those who confess. I am expelled Chairman Mao is
lenient to from China. He lays the docus ment on the table. "Sign it."
Into the room warders are carrying all my belongings from the cell and
my suitcases from
storeroom. The ul nost the confusion prevails as I am lold to pack up my
things, The' interrogating officer, looking impatiently at his watch,
urges me to hurry.
two wash-
1 am informed that I am being taken to the Hongkong border immediately
by train. I try to leave behind" my basins, but I am told to take them,
presumably because I had paid for them, I hand my toilet paper to the
warder. 1 am told to take it. I have paid for that, too.
Warders pick up my packed luggage and carry it out to a
·
waiting 1948 Oldsmobile. I have
+
י
|1
17
for
this old American car as it had several times taken me to see the
doctor..
IT all began on February 22 last year, when my Polish freighter, the
Hanoi, was ordered to anchor at Woosung as we were leaving for Hongkong.
It was lunch-time, and I thought this was very curious because only a
few minutes before the pilot had told me that we should be at the
Yangtse pilot station at 3 o'clock.
After I had finished lunch I went into the lounge, where the pilot and
the security officer were sitting chatling. They said that the ship had
been ordered to anchor to await instructions.
Security mon go through my belongings
About an hour later the security officer came to my cabin and asked to
search it. Ha found my cameras, and inquired if they were loaded. I said
they were not. lle then found three rolls of colour films exposed in
Shanghai and along the Whang- poo River. There was also one in Chungjin,
the northern port roll of black and white of scenes of North Korea,
where I had been on an assignment for The Daily Telegraph in connection
with seizure of the American spy-ship Pueblo. The officer went away with
may films,
1 was handcuffed and hustled out of the room and down four nights of
stairs into a waiting car and driven across the city to a prison in the
former French concession. I was taken into
At 10 o'clock at night he returned to my cabin with another security
officer and This made a second search. time they went through every-
including thing meticulously, my letter file, a folder of inno- small
reception room and given cent personal photographs and number, 1248. I
was very carefully searched. All my Royal Air Force buttons were all my
research material. I was questioned about some of my
and ring were taken. letters. I was then told I could cut off my blazer
and my walch
go to bed.
At 6 o'clock the next morning there was a knock on the cabin
doạt.
to the cabin and ordered me to dress. We went to the saloon where half a
dozen officers of the security police sat in a semi- circle. There was
one vacant chair in front of them.
I was told to sit down and informed that I was being taken ashore to the
frontier station to From my cabin 1 was confess allowed to take only my
over coat, a black briefcase in which I had my passport and money, and a
comb.
I was taken to the fourth Roor of a large building just off The
Shanghai's famous Bund. interrogation began immedia tely, although I had
had no breakfast. It went on until 12 o'clock. We then broke off for
lunch, brought in from the near- by Peace llotel, for which I paid.
The interrogation was sumed at two o'clock, went on until six, and was
resumed at eight. We finally packed up at two in the morning, when they
I brought in a Chinese meal. spent the night on a sofa. This went on for
three days. I was not allowed to wash or comb my hair as my brief-case
had been taken away from me.
On the evening of the third day 7 was removed to the head- quarters of
the public security bureau in Shanghai and here I lived and slept on an
old rusty iron bed for seven harrowing Late on the afternoon of days.
the tenth day, March 4, a pun ber of officers came to the room, one
holding an ominous-looking vellum document from which he began to read.
I was charged with spying.
A warder banded me two
quilts and I was hustled fato stairs to the first floor to a cell
completely devoid of any fyrnk ture except a small concrete non- Rush
toilet. I must confess that I felt pretly depressed at the sight of the
cell The door; slammed shut.
For half an hour I walked up and down wondering for hows long 1 had lost
my freedom. My only consolation was that I was 68 years of age and bad
led a romantic and exciting life, visit- ing almost every country in the
world, I knew that my sccusera would never be free to go anywa where.
I slept on the floor for a time;? completely exhausted. Then I was
roused and taken to the interrogation TOON.
The inquisition went on untilė after midnight, the first of hugs. dreds
of sessions during which millions of words were spoken? on both sides,
and a few confes"", sions were made on my part Who wouldn't confess,
when you know the importance to which Maoist China attaches to con-?
fessions? Until you confess you? never get out,
On the third day of my Imprisonment I was moved from' this third floor
to a ground floor! cell which was filthy. The concrete floor probably
had not been swept for many months, The walls could not have beed
whitewashed for years. It_faced ' porth and was bitterly cold. Two
anonths later I was again moved to a cell on the south side, where : I
stayed for the rest of my incarceration.
ט
+
--
+
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Cutting dated
19 OCT 1969
19
I
-
Immediately after my impri reggient I knew 1 had only two niust somehow
problems. imaialua my health and my merale. This could be done only by
the most rigid discipline every day, I had no reading matter for five
months, when I' w permitted to buy the works
of Chairman Mao.
But books or magazines wera; almost the least of my problems. To begin
with thera was the problem of washing my laundry, with one bowl and a
delivery of cold water only twice a day, I overcame this "by washing the
clothes in the morning and rins- ing them in the afternoon, Then I was
allowed to buy a second" bowl. 1 aundry days were Mon- days, Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Fridays.
This schedule enabled me to' have clean underclothes every other day and
a clean silk shirt on Wednesday and Sunday, Iron, ing the shirts
presented a prob lein, but I solved this by using" any enamel mug
immediately my hot water was brought-all i was given to drink.
L
F
'
It was not until I was trans- ferred to the third cell that I really
settled down and estab, lished a good routine of early physical
exercises, morning prazer, and filing the day by talking-in
imagination-to my daughter Anne or friends. dictating imaginary news
stories to my newspaper and doing word games. These became fas cinating,
and I will give modest prize to anyone who can get more than 854 words
out of
straightforwardness."
a
Then there were the hours of reading Mao and copies of the Peking
Review. This magazine. enabled me to learn, one month. after his
inauguration, that, Nixon was the President of the United States. But I
did not: know of Man's miraculous moon? walk until I reached Hongkong,
On the other hand the inter preter told me the day after" wards of the
assassination of Martin Luther King.
Wfact saved· me from
a breakdown
My biggest deprivation was exercise. Once I did not leave my cell for
three weeks. Normal exercise was about 20 minutes once a week, in a
small com- pound for individual prisoners. pound for individual
prisoners.
I think I survived as well as I did by imagining I had volun- farily
entered a monastery for a period of spiritual and physical recuperation.
Fortunately I was born with a very optimistic tem perament and with a
sense of humour. These two qualities saved me from a breakdown,
On the evening we arrived to Canton my guards were very anxious for me
to go to the Friendship shop, exclusive to foreigners, and spend a
little more of my foreign currency. My last act in China was to sit on-
a wooden bench at the end of the long bridge at the Hongkong frontier
and settle my accounts.
The interpreter produced all receipts for everything that had been
bought for me during the journey down from Shanghai la the way of food,
clothing that I
in". had been permitted to buy in Shanghai, my toothpaste, soap:: and
toilet paper. In 19 months I had spent over £50. I sald to. the
interpreter that I did not. want the receipts, and that Ĺ fully trusted
his accountancy But he insisted on my taking them.
We all stood up and the senior officer gave me a small lecture, then
read to me from Mao's redi breviary:
H
--
*Lifting a rock only to drop It on ones own feet ta Chinese folk saying
to describe the behaviour of certain fools." The reactionaries in all
count- ries are fools of this kind. They wanted me to carry mỳ: own
luggage, but I put my foot: down and demanded a porter.9 Then I set out
on the most wonderful walk I have ever! taken. When I reached the
Hongkong side I turned rounds The three guards were still standing
rigidly at attention watching me.
Surely they did not expect me? to turn round and walk back again..
1969 The Sunday Telegraph.
.
Et
10
L
T
+
The author after release: a wonderful walk to freedom.
L
I
130
C.F. H
CONFIDENTIAL
+
22-
43
Miša Mar
Colonial Secretariat,
Oct.
SCR 1/1167/55
I Love
5/ika t
om bilfore
Me Wild The Boysl
The Deals.
James
Lower Albert Road,
Hồng Kong.
30001190ober, 1969. FEC 130/2
Norman Barrymeris
شكرا
What if my being
throw poverend? to ha
a jug? M.
Our telegram No. 812 of 13 October was a summary of the 3 hour account
Norman Barrymaine gave me and three of my colleagues a few hours after
he crossed the border at Lo Wu. He then went into Queen Mary Hospital
and into the hands of the Daily Telegraph correspondent, Frank
Robertson.
2.
I visited Barrymaine six days later, on 17 October, For a private
conversation lasting 14 hours. Private is not the most accurate
description. We were interrupted by several telephone calls and by
visits from Radio Hong Kong, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and
the Hong Kong "Star". Barrymaine is thoroughly enjoying himself. He is
well looked after at the hospital and is in telephone communication with
numerous newspapers and broadcasting companies round the world.
3.
He
He is not a politically sophisticated observer. has an interesting story
to tell about conditions inside the prison and his own personal
experiences in keeping sane. But he has little information about other
aspects of life in China.
4.
5.
The following details may be of interest.
I am
In paragraph 2(b) of our telegram No. 812 we mentioned a report
Barrymaine had written on Haiphong and marked "for Adam or Gibbon,
Phoenix Park", The officers he had in mind were of course Alec Adams and
Jock Given. still not sure exactly what names he wrote on the document
that fell into the hands of the Chinese, He confirmed that it was Alec
Adams and Jock Given that he had in mind but he then went on to speak of
Adam and Gibbon. The report on Haiphong is something he produced on his
own initiative thinking that it was appropriate for a British journalist
to make available to the authorities any information that might be
useful to them. It was not clear to me whether anyone at Phoenix Park
actually received the document. This initiative is characteristic of
Barrymaine. He likes to dabble on the fringe of intelligence activities.
He probably assumes that I represent some intelligence agency and would
no doubt be disappointed to be told that it was not so.
ל לב
J. Murray, Esq., CMG,
Far Eastern Department,
Foreign & Commonwealth office, LONDON, S.W.1.
/Contd...
CONFIDENTIAL
6.P. 221
CONFIDENTIAL
2
He expects to be approached by representatives of the British and U.S.
intelligence organisations in order that he may give further details
about his experiences in China. He is at the opposite extreme in this
respect from Eric Gordon who would not respond well to any approach that
appeared to be from an intelligence agency.
6.
He
The Chinese asked him a lot of questions about the "facilities" provided
by Jock Given. Barrymaine asked them what they meant by "Facilities".
They said they wanted to know what contacts in China Given had indicated
for him. of course denied that any contacts or any other "facilities"
had been suggested to him by Given or any other official. He said that
during this part of the interrogation the Chinese interrogator said
explicitly that he did not expect Barrymaine to reveal anything that
would be damaging to his country.
7.
He confirmed the statements reported in paragraph 4 of our telegram No.
812 that he gave away nothing embarrassing about I.R.D. and that his
interrogators were satisfied with an account of I.R.D.'s overt
activities.
8.
His interrogators had asked him whether he knew Smith, meaning Leslie
Smith, the former Regional Information Officer in Hong Kong, though they
left it to Barrymaine to supply the name Leslie. Barrymaine said that
Smith was an old friend. He said the interrogators took great interest
in this reply and acted as though they thought it significant.
Barrymaine says that he did not give any indication of what Leslie
Smith's activities vere because in any case he knew little about them.
9.
Barrymaine told me that he had published a story in one of the London
papers about 1961 describing how the Soviet Intelligence Service in
London had recruited him at a time when he was a Lobby Correspondent to
write a monthly memorandum for them against payment of £90 a month. He
had consulted Harold Caccia and had carried on the contact under
appropriate guidance, though that fact had not been revealed in his
nesapaper story. He said that none of this had been mentioned during his
interrogation. The Chinese obviously had not picked up that article.
10.
He is very bitter about the role of Captain Neroni to whom he attributes
most of the responsibility for his imprisonment. He said that Neroni, a
native of Bari, had been in the Italian Navy and later a Captain in the
Italian Merchant Marine. Before he joined the Polish ship to sail vith
Barrymaine he was resident in Japan acting as a salesman for the
investment firm, 1.0.S. He had a Japanese wife and a child. Barrymaine
had shared a cabin with him for three weeks before they were arrested.
He thought him a rather unscrupulous operator. He had, for example,
boasted about the money he had made on the side as a ship's captain out
of the purchase of food for the officers and crev. As the ship left
Shanghai Neroni had been on deck taking many photographs whilst
Barrymaine had confined himself to taking three only and from what he
thought was a more securc position
/contd.
CONFIDENTIAL
G.F. 3
CONFIDENTIAL
in the stern of the ship. Barrymaine believes that it was Neroni's
photographic activities not his own that brought the security people on
board. The security officials first interviewed Barrymaine in the cabin
he was sharing with Neroni at a time when Neroni was elsewhere.
Barrymaine denied having taken any photographs at all since the ship
left Shanghai. The security officials then searched the cabin. They
pulled down a life jacket and out of the pocket fell 12 rolls of exposed
film. Barrymaine denied that they were his. Neroni was brought into the
cabin and also denied ownership.
11.
When Barrymaine was in prison he was supplied with Chinese magazines
which were pushed through his door by the warders. He says that in one
of these magazines he found written between the lines what was evidently
a draft confession by Neroni. In it Neroni admitted being an agent of
the C.I.A. and named his controller in Japan both by his cover name and
by his real name and gave details of the salary he was paid. Barrymaine
believes that Neroni was indeed a C.I.A. employee.
12.
Barrymaine thinks that Neroni was in prison in the cell next to him
until about May of this year. His evidence for this is that he says
Neroni was a remarkably loud snorer and he heard snores from the
neighbouring cell which he believes must have been Neroni's.
13.
I am sending copies of this letter to John Denson in Peking, Anthony
Elliott in Washington, P.A. Singapore and Sir Anthony Rouse in New York.
You ever, Ather
(A.F. Maddocks}
CONFIDENTIAL
h
CYPHER/CAT A
CONFIDENTIAL
Tol whey inclu
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