CHEN ALIAS ACHAM.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 19 March 1927, Page 4

CHEN ALIAS ACHAM.

TI e identity of Mr Eugene G'hen remains mqre than a little of a mystery. In a letter which the London "Times" placed prominently on its leader page, Mr Algernon Aspinall asserted that Mr Winston Churchill was in error in stating that Mr Clien had been "nurtured in the balmy air of far Cathay." On the contrary, Mr Chen had been born and bred in Trinidad, and as a British subject had practised for some years as a solicitor at Port of Spain, and was there known as E. Bernard Acham. Mr Aspinall is secretary to the West India Committee, and was the West Indian Commissioner at Wembley Exhibition, and presumably ought to lcnow what he is talking about. Scepticism as to the identity of Mr Chen with Mr Acham was, however, promptly expressed by "a well-known worker on behalf of native interests" interviewed on the subject by the London correspondent of the "Manchestei Guardian." "He has been astonished," said the correspondent, "by the revelation that Mr Acham and Mr Chen were the same person. He was well acquainted with Mr Acham towards the end of the wai' period. At that time Mrs Acham, described as a charming West Indian lady, had a house in North-west London, as her children were being cducated here. Het' home was the centre of many social gatherings of African and West Indian students in London, and both Mr and Mrs Acham were activcly interested in any effort made on their behalf." Mr Acham, we are further told, "used to pass to and fro between London and Port of Spain. where it is understood that he was a solicitor. He was regarded by his. London friends as a well-educated and fairly well-to-do West Indian, and my informant had no knowledge that he had any especial conncction with China. TTe was a good ,vne of British subject in thc. West IndiiSj i nd was specially intercrled

!. iln improvhig the conditions of the inatives in 'D^oiidad/ His visits to I London were u legal business connected with I native island. . . . Exactly how this West Indian solicitor became mctamorphosed into I the Chinese patriot is decidedly obj scure. Trinidad's population of 400,000, according to the handbooks, is composed mostly of West Indians of African descent, but includes 120,000 East Indians %nd a 'small number of Chinese.'