SUCCESSION OF WARS

Chronicle (Levin), 14 September 1946, Page 2

SUCCESSION OF WARS

YOUNG SAILOR'S LIFE For 19-year-oid . Tjerence Quincey, au ordinary • seamaii in the Akaroa, lil'e has been one war after another. He hails from China, whcre wars have beeu goiug. on for as. long as he ean rcmember. -When ihe- was a baby in arms a civil w.nr. l'orc.ed hini aml .his l.nglish pareiits to lejiVc tlieir country honie near Hhanghai to take shelter in the rnteruational dettlemen t. That was in 1927. Tlien in 1932' the Japauese beeanie uufriendiy and bombed Chajtci, committing arts of terrorisni and barbarity whith shoeked- tlie world. Back went the Quincey family (Terence's father was a atoekbroker) to the relative safety of tlie fSCttlenieut. In 1937 the Japs gave Hhaii^liai a taste of their 1 "a-o-prosperity spliore. " This time tlie | Qpim-ey home was reduced to rubble 1 and the family 'moved into the Jdctllej iueul for good. | Youug Quincey 'b acquaintanco with ; modeiu war from elose-up was renewetl j fit the oulbreak of tlie PuciJio war in j 1911, when tlie "Nips" moved into j yhanghai properly, eapturing an AmeriI can gunboat and sinking oue of BritI ain 's in the proecss. Terence was taken j to a eiviiiau internmeut eamp at Yangj chuw, up tlie Yaugtse, and remained , thore for nearly three years. Yangj cliow is an anoicut walled cily, where j centuries ago the famous oxplorer ! Marco I'olo ruled as governor. Life | was hot exactly a bed of roses tliere 1 for the 6UU British and Lmpiro sub1 jects. Turnips and rotten sweet pota1 toes were the standard diet. j " My ambition was to become a ! veterinary surgeon, but the wars, all of j theui, killed that," explained young (Quincey. WeJl educated at a good i bhanghai school, he speaks English 1 with a faint Aaierican acceut. I "I was eurmarked with otliers to go j to the coalmjnes of Manchuriu. Per- ' hapa you have read of tliem. Ouce you ; weuL..thero }-ou dug tiil you drupped — i dead. LuckiJy i'or me the atom bomb t stopped that, but it wa? moiillis later ! fmfore wo lieard aboul it. ' ' j lteieased from Yaugchow last Octo- | ber, he was couscripted for service and 1 joined the Merehttiit Navy, iu which he I has been a spectator at another war us 1 recentiy as a few montiis ago. I'ruising ; up the China coast to Cliingwantao in f the fcjauiuta — th'e lirst ship to enter llong Kong ai'ter the Japs capituJuteU — ; he saw at lirst hand Ihe tigliting between Chiang . Kai-shek 's Nalionalist troops and Ihe Communists. ' ' tiume of tlie Conuuuuist members of | our crew mutinied nt Chinguaiilao and ! ganged up on us, " said Quincey. ' ' \Ye i locked ourselves up on board to avoid j allack by the coolies, who were armed I with knivos and pitcli-forks. It was ! a lough spot. At lengtli Aniericau j mariues iu L.y.T. 's forced the lfeds j away from the coastal area. " 1 Quincey left yhanghai in April, s|ient some timo 011 the Aaierican BaciJic I Coast and reuched England in July. | This is his lirst trip to New Zealand. 1 When his tenn of service with Ihe Merchant Navy is up — probably iu two j years — he hopes to take up eomniereial art. On most of his wanderings in China and about the world his capable peucil has been active illustratiug his impressions. lle has sketchcd miiitary operatious in the eold north of Cliina, viguettes of everyday lit'c iu Shanghai, j cafe, street and shippiug- f^'enes iu Amcrica and England, and has done many extremely elever and humorous 1 drawings of his ■ shipmates. ''Settle,? Sometime, I guess/' he

said.' "I've given up tlie i-dea-of beiug a vet. But why interviow me? 1 haven 't seen much."